■ 


NEW 

WORDS 

SELF-DEFINED 


mmmmmmtmmmmmmmmmmmaum 


CALPHONSO 
SiMITH 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 


NEW   WORDS 
SELF-DEFINED 


Toute  epoque  a  ses  idees  propres;  il  faut  qu'elle 
ait  aussi  les  mots  propres  a  ces  idees . 

— Victor  Hugo,  Preface  to  Cromwell 


BY 

C.  ALPHONSO  SMITH,  ph.d.,ll.d.,l.h.d 

Author  of,  "Studies  in  English  Syntax,"  "The  American 

Short  Story,"  "What  Can  Literature  Do  For 

Me?"  "0.  Henry  Biography,"  Etc. 

Head  of  the  Department  of  English  in  the  U.  S 
Naval  Academy,  Annapolis,  Md. 


GARDEN  CITY  NEW  YORK 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 
1919 


COPYRIGHT,  1919,  BY 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED,  INCLUDING  THAT  OP 

TRANSLATION  INTO  FOREIGN  LANGUAGES, 

INCLUDING  THE  SCANDINAVIAN 


3  16  89 


^ 


1 


Sl»-  + 


TO  MY  WIFE 

Without  whose  interest  there  would  have  been 
less  pleasure  in  compiling  this  book,  and  with- 
out whose  aid  there  would  have  been  less  hope 
that  the  compilation  would  be  worth  while. 


! 
1 


55 

n 

CO 
CO 


40SG78 


PREFACE 

This  book  is  both  less  and  more  than  a  dictionary. 
It  is  less  than  a  dictionary  in  containing  not  one  formal 
definition;  it  is  more  than  a  dictionary  in  its  attempt  to 
quote  only  such  sentences  as  make  the  meaning  of  each 
word  stand  self-revealed.  It  is  one  thing  to  memorize 
a  definition,  quite  another  to  add  the  word  defined  at 
once  to  your  vocabulary  of  actual  use. 

The  sentences  here  culled  will,  I  believe,  enable  the 
reader  to  take  each  word  or  phrase  by  its  handle  and  to 
use  it,  if  he  so  desires.  If  he  does  not  care  to  make 
personal  use  of  these  words,  it  should  be  remembered 
that  most  of  them  have  found  their  way  since  1914 
into  so  many  short  stories,  sketches,  novels,  news 
columns,  and  magazine  contributions  that  a  reading 
knowledge  of  them  is  essential  to  a  proper  understand- 
ing of  current  writing.  They  are  not  all  new  words, 
of  course;  but,  when  not  new,  they  have  at  least  been 
called  into  newness  of  service  or  represent  new  direc- 
tions of  popular  interest  or  scientific  research.  They 
have,  therefore,  it  is  hoped,  a  value  as  material  of  history 
apart  from  their  service  to  the  student  of  language  or 
their  more  immediate  service  to  the  general  reader. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  record  the  cooperation  of  the 
midshipmen  in  the  pursuit  of  some  of  the  more  elu- 


viii  PREFACE 

sive  of  these  words.  I  could  at  least  never  have 
"wangled"  my  way  through  all  the  difficulties  pre- 
sented had  it  not  been  for  the  efficient  assistance  of 
midshipmen  U.  P.  Bern,  R.  E.  Blick,  Jr.,  John  P. 
Cady,  W.  P.  Cogswell,  W.  H.  Crew,  J.  A.  Hollowell, 
Jr.,  D.  H.  Johnston,  T.  H.  Kehoe,  H.  D.  Krick,  E.  J. 
Long,  E.  P.  Montgomery,  J.  F.  Morgan,  J.  E.  Mur- 
phy, F.W.Rowe,  Jr.,  Roswell  P.  Russell,  George  McW. 
Sturgeon,  Jr.,  and  Archie  Tolk. 

C.  Alphonso  Smith. 
Annapolis,  Md. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 


ACE 

When  a  pilot  has  accounted  for  five  Boches  he  is  men- 
tioned by  name  in  the  official  communication,  and  is 
spoken  of  as  an  "Ace,"  which  in  French  aerial  slang 
means  a  super-pilot.  Papers  are  allowed  to  call  an 
"ace"  by  name,  print  his  picture,  and  give  him  a 
write-up.  The  successful  aviator  becomes  a  national 
hero. — James  R.  McConnell,  Flying  for  France  (1916). 

Paris,  Nov.  16. — Six  new  victories  over  German  air- 
planes were  gained  during  the  late  fighting  in  the  Aisne 
region  by  Lieut.  Rene  Fonck,  ace  of  aces  of  all  the 
belligerent  powers,  with  75  airplanes  officially  de- 
stroyed, plus  40  probable  victories. — Paul  Ayres 
Rockwell,  Evening  Sun,  Baltimore,  Md.,  Nov.  16, 
1918. 

ADDICT 

Estimating  the  average  individual  consumption  of  tea- 
drinkers  to  be  two-fifths  of  an  ounce  per  diem,  the  total 
number  of  tea-drinkers  in  the  United  States  is  about 


4  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

16,000,000,  an  army  of  drug  addicts  whose  number  is 
increased  annually  by  the  addition  of  425,000  new 
recruits. — Good  Health,  Battle  Creek,  Mich.,  February, 
1919. 

Transformed  mentally  and  physically,  a  former  mor- 
phine addict,  who  escaped  a  week  ago  to-day  from  the 
detention  quarters  at  Bay  View,  where  she  was  under 
treatment,  was  escorted  into  Part  I,  of  the  Criminal 
Court,  where  Judge  Heuisler  was  presiding  yesterday 
afternoon,  by  Headquarters  Detectives  Porter  and 
Quirk.     Baltimore  Sun,  March  21,  1919. 

AERY 

I  am  ambitious  to  add  a  victory  word  to  the  English 
language,  a  short,  pithy,  appropriate  name  for  our 
magnificent  Air  Service.  .  .  .  The  name,  there- 
fore, of  the  Service  as  a  whole  should  be  analogous 
to  that  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  which  covers  all  our 
land  or  sea  forces,  and  I  submit  no  better  word  can 
be  suggested  than  AERY,  a  word  of  four  letters  ending 
in  Y  as  in  Army  and  Navy,  and  formed  from  their 
Latin  derivatives. 

Anna = Arms,  whence  Army. 
Navis  =  Ship,  whence  Navy. 
Aer=Air,  whence  Aery. 

I  commend  this  idea  to  favourable  and  discriminating 
discussion.  We  already  have  the  words  aerodrome, 
aeroplane,  aerial,  etc. — Edwin  de  Lisle,  Saturday 
Review,  London,  Dec.  14,  1918. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  5 

AIRMAN 

Flying  is  ideal  work  for  sailors.  Therefore  the  whole 
tradition  of  the  British  nation,  with  its  great  sea  his- 
tory, tends  to  produce  fine  airmen. — Air  Power  (1917), 
by  Claude  Graham- White  and  Harry  Harper,  p  18. 

AIRNAT 

Paris,  Sept.  28. — "Airnats"  will  take  its  place  beside 
"poilus"  and  "Yanks"  if  the  world  will  accept  the 
result  of  an  appeal  made  by  The  Plane  News,  the 
organ  of  the  American  Air  Service,  for  suggestions  for 
the  best  nickname  for  fighters  in  the  air  service. 

A  Matin  reporter,  who  visited  the  camp  just  after  the 
selection  was  made,  hails  the  name  as  "clear,  light,  and 
neat,"  but  he  misses  some  of  its  aptness,  as  he  says 
"the  name  has  no  particular  signification,  being  an 
abbreviation  of  aeronauts." — N.Y.  Times,  Sept.  29, 1918. 

AIR  PORT 

The  first  "air  port"  ever  established  will  be  constructed 
at  Atlantic  City,  N.  J.,  in  connection  with  the  second 
Pan-American  Aeronautical  Exposition  and  Conven- 
tion, to  be  held  there  next  month,  according  to  plans 
just  announced  by  the  Aerial  League  of  America 
through  its  Secretary,  Augustus  Post.  .  .  .  "The 
air  port  will  be  operated  exactly  as  seaports  are  oper- 
ated," added  Mr.  Post.  "The  aircraft  starting  from 
this  port  will  be  registered  under  the  rules  of  the  Air- 
craft Inspection  Service  of  the  Department  of  Com- 


6  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

merce,  and  will  have  clearance  papers,  just  like  any 
other  commercial  vessel.  The  air  port  itself  will  be  a 
terminal  for  transatlantic  air  liners,  whether  of  the 
seaplane,  land  airplane,  or  dirigible  type.  Supplies 
for  these  craft  and  shops  for  their  repairs  will  be  estab- 
lished."—N.  Y.  Times,  April  13,  1919. 

ALERTE 

In  the  French  Army  the  bugle  sound  equivalent  to  the 
"  Disperse"  is  called  Berloque.  .  .  .  In  the  agglomer- 
ation of  Paris  and  in  all  places  subject  to  raids  where 
troops  are  stationed,  buglers  are  detailed,  who  divide 
up  the  town  and  blow  lustily  the  Alerte  and  the  Ber- 
loque when  the  occasion  requires  it.  Sometimes  the 
Berloque  is  followed  by  the  Alerte  again,  when  there 
are  two  raids  in  one  night  in  rapid  succession. — Army 
and  Navy  Gazette,  London,  September  14,  1918. 

It  was  also  true  that  Mile.  Marguerite  always  dropped 
the  dish  she  was  passing  when  the  "alerte"  sounded 
the  air  raid  warning. — Marion  B.  Cothren,  N.  Y. 
Times  Magazine,  March  2,  1919. 

ALLYMAN 
See  Jerry. 

AMALGAM 

Sectors  of  "amalgam"  is  the  name  bestowed  by  the 
French  on  those  parts  of  the  long  Western  battle-front 
where    American    soldiers    are    mingled,    principally 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  7 

for  training  purposes,  with  veteran  French  troops.  .  . 
Writing  from  Alsace  to  the  Newark  News,  Cecil  I. 
Dorrian  describes  the  actual  operation  of  the  "Amal- 
gams.".    .     . 

He  explains: 

I  have  been  down  on  this  front  for  a  week  and  have  seen 
one  of  these  "amalgams"  at  work  all  the  way  from  its 
back  country  of  reserve  and  supply  right  up  to  the 
jumping-off  place  between  us  and  them,  to  that  species 
of  vacuum  known  as  "No  Man's  Land"  or  the  "Pa//.s 
de  la  Lune,"  according  to  what  language  you  speak. 
(I  don't  know  what  the  Germans  call  it;  "Kein  Durch- 
gang,"  perhaps!) 

The  way  our  troops  and  the  French  wrork  together  is 
one  of  the  pleasant  features  of  the  war. — Literary 
Digest,  Sept.  21,  1918. 

AMERICA  FIRST 

So  that  I  am  not  speaking  in  a  selfish  spirit  when  I 
say  that  our  whole  duty  for  the  present,  at  any  rate, 
is  summed  up  in  this  motto,  "America  first."  Let 
us  think  of  America  before  we  think  of  Europe,  in 
order  that  America  may  be  fit  to  be  Europe's  friend 
when  the  day  of  tested  friendship  comes. — President 
Wilson,  New  York,  April  20,  1915. 

AMERICAN  TISSOT  MASK 

Not  a  case  is  on  record  of  an  American  soldier  who  has 
fallen  victim  of  a  gas  attack  when  protected  by  the 


8  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

American  mouthpiece  type  of  mask.  Recently  produc- 
tion has  commenced  on  the  American  Tissot  mask,  an 
adaptation  of  the  French  type,  which,  while  equally 
effective,  affords  the  wearer  greater  comfort  than  in  the 
case  of  the  mouthpiece  mask  by  enabling  him  to  breathe 
both  through  the  nose  and  the  mouth. — Annual  Re- 
port of  the  Secretary  of  War   (1918). 

AMERIND* 

The  earliest  Americanisms  are  now  an  integral  part  of 
the  English  language,  being  such  as  "sachem,"  "wam- 
pum," and  "squaw,"  all  terms  derived  from  the  Amer- 
ind inhabitants. — Athenaeum,  London,  Feb.  13,  1918. 

ANDREW 

Enough  has  been  said,  however,  to  show  what  a  variety 
of  different  unofficial  terms  are  used  on  board  His 
Majesty's  ships,  but  those  we  have  mentioned  are  only 
a  tithe  of  those  which  are  heard  every  day  in  "Andrew," 
as  the  bluejacket  calls  the  Navy. — "Taffrail," 
Carry  On!  (1916). 

ANZAC 

The  word  "Anzac"  was  coined  at  Gallipoli.  It  was 
formed  from  the  capital  letters  in  the  words  Australian 
and  New  Zealand  Army  Corps.     The  beach  where  the 


*The  word  is  of  course  a  fusion  of  American  and  Itidian.  In  The  North  Americana 
of  Yesterday  (4th.  ed.  191G)  by  Frederick  S.  Dellenbaugh,  Amerind  is  consistently  used 
instead  of  Indian  or  Redslcin. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  9 

first  precarious  foothold  on  Gallipoli  was  secured  by  the 
British  was  named  Anzac  Cove.  There  the  book  *  was 
written  and  illustrated. — Literary  Digest,  Sept.  23, 
1916. 

APRON   AND  FESTOON 

It  was  what  is  called  a  four  line  "apron  and  festoon" 
fence.  Four  lines  of  parallel  posts  sticking  out  of  the 
ground  some  four  feet  were  first  driven,  and  then,  to 
these  post  rows,  four  barbed  wires  were  loosely  strung. 
Then  diagonal  wires  from  the  top  of  one  post  to  the 
bottom  of  another  were  put  on.  Then  the  "apron 
wires"  were  laid  from  one  post  line  to  another,  zig- 
zagging loosely  across,  for  a  tight  wire  is  easily  snipped 
by  a  wire  cutter.  Then  in  the  nest  of  crossing  wires, 
formed  by  the  aprons  between  the  post  rows,  the  curly 
"festoons"  were  flung  all  loosely  and  without  order  as 
they  reeled  off  the  wire  spools;  and  if  a  soldier  jumped 
the  first  line  he  landed  in  a  tangle  out  of  which  he  must 
jump  or  straddle  to  another,  and  after  that  another; 
and  if  he  cut  the  first  wires  he  had  to  crawl  on  and 
dissect  the  second  and  third,  leaving  dozens  of  barbed 
and  twisting  ends  to  trap  and  tangle  in  a  fellow's  pack 
and  coat  and  weapons. — Charles  Tenney  Jackson, 
American  Boy,  March,  1918. 

ARCHIE,    ARCHIBALD 

Sir, — In  reading  Major  Bishop's  book  "Winged  War- 
fare" I  was  interested  to  see  that  he  stated  therein  that 

'The  Anzac  Book,  edited  by  Captain  C.  E.  W.  Beau. 


10  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

lie  was  unaware  of  the  origin  of  the  term  "Archie," 
denoting  anti-aircraft  guns.  Possibly  its  origin  has 
been  lost  in  the  "mists  of  antiquity,"  but  so  far  as  my 
memory  serves  me,  the  term  "Archie"  was  derived 
from  the  catchwords  "Archibald,  certainly  not!"  which 
were  rife  amongst  the  men  of  the  original  B.  E.  F.,  as 
applied  to  the  singularly  ineffectual  efforts  of  anti- 
aircraft guns — both  our  own  and  the  enemy's — of  that 
period  to  combat  the  activities  of  aeroplanes.  This 
may  be  of  interest  to  your  readers,  as  I  have  found  that 
it  is  a  frequent  subject  of  discussion. — I  am  Sir. — 
c<1914"— Spectator,  London,  Sept.  7,  1918. 

Suddenly  whack,  whack,  whack,  came  a  line  of  little 
puffs  of  smoke  behind  it,  and  then  one  in  front  of  it, 
which  meant  that  our  anti-aircraft  guns  were  having 
a  go  at  it.  Then,  as  suddenly,  Archibald  stopped, 
and  we  could  see  the  British  machine  buzzing  across  the 
path  of  the  German. — H.  G.  Wells,  Mr.  Britling  Sees 
It    Through  (1916). 

Came  down  one  time  after  being  Archied  (that's  what 
we  call  the  Germans  anti-aircraft  guns)  pretty  heavy 
and  found  two  tears  in  fuselage  from  exploding  shrap- 
nel, but  a  miss  is  as  good  as  a  mile  you  know;  when 
the  Archies  open  up  on  us  we  immediately  start 
maneuvering  and  do  all  the  tricks  that  are  possible  with 
the  plane  in  order  to  give  the  Boche  a  poor  target. — 
Lieut.  Jas.  J.  Sykes,  State  Journal,  Raleigh,  N.  C, 
Sept.  13,  1918. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  11 

ARGON 

Secretary  Roosevelt  authorizes  the  following: 
The  important  part  played  by  the  Navy  during  the  war 
in  the  production  of  helium,  the  balloon  gas  which  dur- 
ing hostilities  was  camouflaged  as  argon,  is  given  in 
detail  in  a  memorandum  prepared  by  the  Bureau  of 
Steam  Engineering.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  in  recent 
articles  on  this  subject,  both  in  technical  journals  and 
the  daily  press,  the  Navy's  work  has  been  largely  ig- 
nored, the  department  makes  public  the  following: 

SOLVED  THE  ZEPPELIN  PROBLEM 

Since  helium  is  noninflammable,  an  observation  or 
dirigible  balloon  filled  with  it  can  not  be  destroyed  by 
incendiary  bullets.  The  only  effective  method  of 
attack  would  be  by  driving  an  airplane  bodily  through 
the  great  gas  bag.  With  the  fire  risk  eliminated,  the 
rigid  airship  or  Zeppelin  will  hence  be  one  of  the  most 
powerful  weapons  known. — Official  U.  S.  Bulletin, 
Washington,  D.  C,  March  18,  1919. 

AS 

The  French,  always  so  quick  to  give  things  names — 
and  so  liberal  about  it  that,  to  the  embarrassment  and 
undoing  of  the  unhappy  foreigner,  they  sometimes  in- 
vent fifty  names  for  one  thing — have  added  so  many 
words  to  the  vocabulary  since  August,  1914,  that  a 
glossary,  and  perhaps  more  than  one,  has  been  pub- 
lished to  enshrine  them.     Without  the  assistance  of  this 


12  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

glossary  it  is  almost  impossible  to  read  some  of  the 
numerous  novels  of  poilu  life.  So  far  as  I  am  aware  the 
latest  creation  is  the  infinitesimal  word  "as,"  or  rather, 
it  is  a  case  of  adaptation.  Yesterday  "  as,des  carreaux  " 
(to  give  the  full  form)  stood  simply  for  ace  of  diamonds. 
To-day  all  France,  with  that  swift  assimilation  which 
has  ever  been  one  of  its  many  mysteries,  knows  its  new 
meaning  and  applies  it.  .  .  .  But  why  ace  of 
diamonds?  That  I  cannot  explain. — Punch,  London, 
July  11,  1917. 

Finally,  Mr.  Dauzat  omits  to  note  that  the  famous  word 
as  (first  the  crack  cavalryman,  now  the  virtuoso  air- 
man), which  has  now  passed  into  English,  has  lately 
acquired  a  derogatory  nuance,  a  touch  of  the  implica- 
tion of  jeune  premier,  so  much  that  when  an  artillery- 
man, in  sincere  admiration,  called  a  member  of  a  bomb- 
ing party  an  ace,  he  had  great  difficulty  in  persuading 
the  bomber  that  he  had  not  been  insulted. — London 
Times,  review  of  Dauzat's  V Argot  de  la  Guerre  (1918). 

ASH-CAN* 

When  our  fellows  first  went  over  they  had  to  learn  a  few 
things  from  the  British.  We  had  first  to  get  rid  of  some 
childish  ideas  about  depth  charges.  We  brought  over 
a  toy  size  of  50  to  60  pounds.  They  showed  us  a  man's 
size  one — 300  pounds  of  T.  N.  T.,  a  contraption  looking 
so  much  like  a  galvanized  iron  ash-barrel  with  flattened 
sides  that  they  call  them  "ash-cans." — James  B.  Con- 
Nolly,  The  U-Boat  Hunters  (1918). 

•See  can. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  13 

The  depth  charge  is  known  in  the  Navy  as  the  "egg" 
or  the  "ash  can."  It  is  a  tremendous  body  of  exceed- 
ingly high  explosive,  suitably  incased,  that  can  be  set 
to  explode  at  various  depths  beneath  the  surface  of  the 
water.  It  is  projected  overboard  at  times  and  in  places 
where  there  is  reason  to  believe  there  is  a  submarine 
beneath,  and  it  has  a  wide  destructive  area. — Samuel 
G.  Blythe,  Saturday  Evening  Post,  Oct.  12,  1918. 

ATTABOY 

Copies  of  newspapers  just  arrived  from  Paris  contain 
"  human  interest "  stories  of  the  American  troops.  Here 
is  a  lively  incident  written  by  a  reporter  for  Ulntran- 
sigeant,  published  on  July  4: 

"Atta  boy!  atta  boy!  This  cry  was  heard  to-day 
by  Parisians  who  acclaimed  Gen.  Pershing  and  his 
vigorous  stalwarts.  It  will  soon  be  popular  with  us — 
this  American  cry — and  on  our  front  it  will  soon  be  the 
war  cry  of  the  American  troops.  'Atta  boy !'  is  a  simple 
popular  contraction  for  'That's  the  boy!'  which  means 
'Here  is  the  man  for  the  situation!'." — New  York  Even- 
ing Sun,  July  31,  1917. 

When  the  English  heard  the  Yankees  cry  "Attaboy!" 

as  some  player  hit  out  a  three-bagger,  they  immediately 

started  an  inquiry  into  the  meaning  of  the  term.     One 

English  paper  described  it  thus: 

"The  term  expresses  the  satisfaction  of  the  spectator 

with  some  meritorious  performance  of  a  player;  literally 

it  means  'That's  the  stuff,  my  boy!'" 

All  the  London  papers  took  it  up,  with  the  result  that 


14  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

in  London,  at  least,  the  Americans  are  now  almost 
unanimously  called  "Attaboys." — Baltimore  Evening 
Sun,  July  5,  1918. 

Baseball  may  not  live  in  Stratford,  but  "Attaboy"  will. 
As  the  punting  parties  pass  each  other  on  the  Avon 
to-day,  right  now,  they  are  saying,  "Attaboy."  They 
are  saying  it  at  the  Red  Lion  Inn,  also  at  the  Golden 
Horse.  Even  on  the  doorstep  of  the  home  of  the  im- 
mortal Shakespeare  they  are  saying  "Attaboy." — 
Evening  Capital,  Annapolis,  Md.,  Oct.  31,  1918. 

AUSSIE,  AUSSEY,  OZZIE 

The  term  "Aussies"  was  used  by  Australians  early  in 
the  present  war,  just  after  the  first  Australian  troops 
went  across  to  France  from  Egypt.  Men  would  be 
heard  to  say,  "Huh,  Aussie  is  a  batter  country  than 
this,  my  oath,"  and  gradually  the  term  has  spread  until 
now  it  is  practically  the  only  term  used  in  that  particu- 
lar sense  among  all  ranks  of  Australian  soldiers,  and 
also  by  people  who  are  in  any  way  associated  with  them. 
There  are  two  ways  of  spelling  the  word — one  "Aussie" 
and  the  other  "Aussey."  In  a  book  shortly  to  be  pub- 
lished the  author,  C.  Hampton  Thorp,  a  one-time  dig- 
ger (soldier),  maintains  that  Australia,  as  a  country, 
is  spelled  "Aussie"  for  purposes  of  abbreviation,  but 
Australian  fighting  men  abroad  are  termed  "Ausseys." 
— Baltimore  Star,  Nov.,  1918. 

Our  men  felt  the  same  way  about  the  Australian  private. 
They  liked  the  Tommy  well  enough,  they  were  grateful 
to  him,  but  when  we  were  attached  to  the  Australian 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  15 

regiments  they  were  glad  to  be  with  the  men  "who 
called  a  nail  a  nail  and  not  a  nile."  The  fondness  be- 
tween the  soldiers  was  mutual.  There  was  nothing 
an  Ozzie  liked  so  much  as  righting  with  a  Yankee  com- 
pany.— Capt.  Edward  M.  Kent,  N.  Y.  Times,  Feb. 
23,  1919. 

AVIATIK 

"A  little  more,  and  undoubtedly  you'd  have  been  taken 
prisoners  by  the  aviatiks." 
"What's  that  you  say?" 

"Yes;  that's  our  nickname  here  [in  Paris]  for  the 
police,  because  of  their  frequent  raids.  We  are  often 
the  victims,  for  your  true  policeman  is  without  pity. 
It's  an  innocent  title  that  hurts  no  one." — Marcel 
Nadaud,  Atlantic  Monthly,  November,  1918. 

AVION 

It  is  necessary  to  explain  parenthetically  here  that 
French  military  aviation,  generally  speaking,  is  divided 
into  three  groups — the  avions  de  chasse  or  airplanes  of 
pursuit,  which  are  used  to  hunt  down  enemy  aircraft 
or  to  fight  them  off;  avions  de  bombar dement,  big,  un- 
wieldy monsters,  for  use  in  bombarding  raids;  and 
avions  de  reglage,  cumbersome  creatures  designed  to 
regulate  artillery  fire,  take  photographs,  and  do  scout 
duty. — James  R.  McConnell,  Flying  for  France  (1916). 


B 


BAFFLE  PAINTING 

Washington,  Aug.  24. — New  developments  in  the  art 
of  marine  camouflage  have  effected  radical  changes  in 
the  painting  of  ships  to  protect  them  from  the  enemy. 
Modern  naval  warfare  no  longer  reckons  upon  "in- 
visibility" as  a  defensive  factor,  authorities  having 
arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  paint  itself,  being  de- 
pendent upon  light,  will  not  overcome  shadows.  "Baffle 
painting"  has  been  developed  as  a  substitute  to  deceive 
a  submarine  commander  as  to  the  size  and  form  of  a 
ship  and  her  course  and  speed. 

Lieut.-Com.  Norman  Wilkinson,  Royal  Naval  Volun- 
teer Reserve,  the  inventor  of  "baffle  painting,"  came 
to  the  conclusion  after  long  experiment  that  the  moment 
a  submarine  comes  to  the  surface  within  striking  distance 
no  method  of  painting  would  render  a  ship  sufficiently 
invisible  to  escape  being  seen. — Baltimore  Sun,  Aug. 
25,  1918. 

BANK 

Number  Eight's  motor  commenced  again,  the  craft 
began  to  climb,  straightened  out,  swung  around  in  a 
long,  swooping  turn,  one  wing  rising,  the  other  lowering, 

16 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  17 

as  the  pilot  "banked"  precisely  as  a  cyclist  or  a  skater 
leans  his  body  in  rounding  a  sharp  turn,  then  suddenly 
lurched  and  shot  sideways  through  the  air. — D.  H. 
Haines,  American  Boy,  Feb.,  1919. 

BARBAQUE 

Barbaque,  which  has  now  largely  supplanted  bidoclw 
and  become  the  normal  word  for  meat,  whereas  in  the 
past  it  was  opposed  to  bidoche  as  bad  meat  is  to  good, 
remains  something  of  a  mystery.  It  is  suggested  that 
it  comes  from  the  Roumanian  berbec,  a  sheep,  and  dates 
from  the  Crimean  War,  when  the  troops  had  to  subsist 
chiefly  on  scraggy  Wallachian  mutton;  on  the  other 
hand,  we  feel  that  our  own  word  barbecue,  which  was 
probably  taken  by  the  buccaneers  from  the  Spanish, 
should  yield  some  solution  of  the  curious  word. — Lon- 
don Times,  review  of  Dauzat's  U  Argot  de  la  Guerre 
(1918). 

BAROGRAPH 

Many  new  instruments  have  been  devised  for  aircraft. 
These  include  barographs,  which  indicate  and  record 
altitude. — Problems  of  Aeroplane  Improvement,  by  Naval 
Consulting  Board  of  the  U.  S.,  August  1,  1918. 

BARRAGE  FIRE 

"  Barrage,"  an  artillery  fire  that  bars  the  way,  has  been 
borrowed  from  the  French  and  completely  Anglicized, 
being  pronounced  to  rime  with  "  marriage."  * — Brand er 
Matthews,  Munseys  Magazine,  April,  1919. 

*Ae  beard  at  the, Naval  Academy  it  rimes  more  frequently  with  "Garage." 


18  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

It  would  astonish  you  if  I  could  print  here  a  time  table 
I  have  seen  of  what  is  called  "barrage  fire,"  that  is  to 
say,  fire  designed  to  create  a  zone  of  death  which  shall 
bar  the  enemy  from  hindering  the  advance  of  the  men 
with  the  bayonets  upon  whom  in  the  last  analysis 
the  capture  of  positions  always  depends.  This  zone  of 
death  was,  according  to  the  time  table,  to  be  moved 
forward  every  few  minutes.  —  Lord  Northcliffe's 
War  Book  (1916). 

While  I  was  at  the  front  I  had  opportunity  to  observe 
three  distinct  types  of  barrage  fire,  the  "box,"  the 
"jumping,"  and  the  "creeping."  The  "box,"  I  have 
already  described  to  you,  as  it  is  used  in  a  raid.  The 
"jumping"  plays  on  a  certain  line  for  a  certain  interval 
and  then  jumps  to  another  line.  The  officers  in  com- 
mand of  the  advance  know  the  intervals  of  time  and 
space  and  keep  their  lines  close  up  to  the  barrage,  mov- 
ing with  it  on  the  very  second.  The  "creeping "  barrage 
opens  on  a  certain  line  and  then  creeps  ahead  at  a  certain 
fixed  rate  of  speed,  covering  every  inch  of  the  ground  to 
be  taken.  The  men  of  the  advance  simply  walk  with 
it,  keeping  within  about  thirty  yards  of  the  line  on  which 
the  shells  were  falling. — Sergeant  Alexander  Mc- 
Clintock,  Best  o'  Luck. 

/ 
BASKET   CASE 

The  War  Department  authorizes  the  following  state- 
ment from  the  office  of  the  Surgeon  General : 
The  Surgeon  General  of  the  Army,  Maj.  Gen.  Mer- 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  19 

ritte  W.  Ireland,  denies  emphatically  that  there  is  any 
foundation  for  the  stories  that  have  been  circulated  in 
all  parts  of  the  country  of  the  existence  of  "basket 
cases"  in  our  hospitals.  A  basket  case  is  a  soldier  who 
has  lost  both  legs  and  both  arms  and  therefore  can  not 
be  carried  on  a  stretcher. 

Gen.  Ireland  says:  "I  have  personally  examined  the 
records  and  am  able  to  say  that  there  is  not  a  single 
basket  case  either  on  this  side  of  the  water  or  among 
the  soldiers  of  the  A.  E.  F.  Further,  I  wish  to  empha- 
size that  there  has  been  no  instance  of  an  American 
soldier  so  wounded  during  the  whole  period  of  the 
war." — Official  U.  S.  Bulletin,  Washington,  March  28, 
1919. 

BATMAN 

I  was  rudely  brought  to  earth  by  the  "Quarter"  ex- 
claiming, "'Ere,  you,  'op  it,  tyke  it  aw'y;  blind  my 
eyes,  'e's  looking  for  'is  batman  to  'elp  'im  carry  it." — 
Arthur  Guy  Empey,  Over  the  Top  (1917). 

Arrived  at  my  destination,  I  found  a  batman  and  a 
billet  awaiting  me.  .  .  .  Then  my  batman,  a  re- 
sourceful rascal,  secured  an  outhouse  for  my  special 
accommodation. — Capt.  A.  P.  Corcoran,  Ladies'  Home 
Journal,  Nov.,  1918. 

A  man  staggered  past  him,  blowing  like  a  walrus.  It 
was  the  Padre's  batman,  and  he  had  his  master  tucked 
under  one  arm,  in  his  underclothes,  kicking  feebly. — 
Punch,  London,  July  11,  1917. 


20  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

BIG  BERTHA 

In  the  course  of  time  I  found  myself  in  the  Champs 
Elysees  in  front  of  a  monstrous  cannon.  The  welcom- 
ing salutes,  a  hundred  salvos,  had  just  begun.  And 
each  time  that  thundering  explosion  shook  the  air  the 
people  smiled  at  each  other  and  cried,  "Oho!  Big 
Bertha!"  Never  again  would  that  vicious  old  female 
drop  her  fatal  pills  on  this  pleasant  city;  and  the  man 
they  were  about  to  greet  had  helped  to  set  them  free. — 
Elizabeth  Feazer,  Saturday  Evening  Post,  March  1, 
1919. 

BILLARD 

Billard,  for  instance,  has  two  definite  and  common 
applications :  in  the  military  hospital  it  is  the  operating- 
table,  at  the  front  it  is  No  Man's  Land.  It  would  be 
hard  to  decide  which  turn  of  sense  displayed  the  more 
macabre  humour. — London  Times,  review  of  Dauzat's 
V Argot  de  la  Guerre  (1918). 

BING  BOYS 

After  Sir  Julian  Byng  took  command  the  Canadians 
humorously  called  themselves  "The  Bing  Boys,"  after 
a  popular  musical  comedy.  In  one  battle  they  gaily 
signalled  back  from  within  a  few  yards  of  the  artillery 
barrage  that  "The  Bing  Boys  are  here,"  denoting  their 
arrival  at  the  second  German  trench. — Lord  North- 
cliffe's  War  Booh  (1916). 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  21 

BIRDMAN 

We  used  to  speak  of  "a  bird's-eye  view"  of  things  as 
descriptive  of  a  broad  and  impartial  sweep  of  vision 
from  a  point  high  enough  above  them  all  to  take  in  their 
significance  as  a  whole.  A  better  phrase  now  would  be 
"a  birdman's  view,"  because  a  birdman's  eye  can  see 
farther  and  more  quickly  than  the  most  rapid  of  nature's 
scouts. 

Let  us  suppose  a  bird-man  to  be  flying  over  Europe 
at  present — what  would  he  see? — Baltimore  Sun, 
March  8,  1919. 

With  the  American  Army  in  France,  September  12  (by 
mail). — There  are  birds  and  birds  among  American 
birdmen  along  the  front.  One  is  a  rare  specimen,  the 
"kewie  bird."— Baltimore  Star,  Oct.  9,  1918. 

BITTER-ENDER* 

For  a  long  time  the  President  kept  an  open  mind,  and 
German  frightfulness  filled  it  at  last  to  overflowing. 
He  is  therefore  to-day  a  bitter-ender,  wary  and  alert 
against  peacemongers,  opportunists,  and  round-table 
negotiators,  however  well-meaning  and  misled  in  their 
zeal  for  humanity. — Saturday  Review,  London,  Sept.  14, 
1918. 

BITTER-ENDERISM 

I  have  received  from  the  office  of  a  weekly  journal  of 
some  prominence  a  good  deal  of  combined  subscription- 

•See  jutqwboiUisl. 


22  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

soliciting  and  propaganda-carrying  literature,  opposing 
what  the  editors  of  the  journal  in  question  are  pleased 
to  treat  as  an  unreasoning  "bitter-enderism"  on  the 
part  of  all  who  are  unwilling  to  listen  to  talk  of  a  peace 
by  negotiation  with  the  Central  Powers. — W.  H.  John- 
son, New  York  Times,  Sept.  15, 1918. 

BLACK  MARIA 

See  crump. 

BLIGHTY 

Before  the  war  the  English  Army  was  stationed  chiefly 
in  India,  and  their  slang  consisted  largely  of  words 
and  phrases  adapted  from  the  native  language.  Thus, 
"blighty"  was  coined  in  India  and  is  derived  from  the 
Hindustani  "Bhilati"  meaning  home,  or  England.  A 
"blighty"  wound  is  one  which  sends  a  Tommy  home  to 
recover. — Atlantic  Monthly,  Feb.,  1917. 

And  his  [Tommy's]  customary  name  for  Great  Britain 
is  "blighty,"  seemingly  a  most  infelicitous  vocable. 
Its  origin,  however,  is  readily  traced  by  the  experts;  it 
is  an  acquisition  from  the  British  soldier  who  has  served 
in  India,  where  the  natives  call  England  "Belait,"  as 
readers  of  Kipling's  "Kim"  will  remember. — Brander 
Matthews,  Munsey's  Magazine,  April,  1919. 

Our  right  section  commander  got  a  blighty  two  days  ago 
and  is  probably  now  in  England.  He  went  off  on  a 
firing  battery  wagon,  grinning  all  over  his  face,  saying 
he  wouldn't  sell  that  bit  of  blood  and  shrapnel  for  a 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  23 

thousand  pounds. — Coningsby  Dawson,  Carry  On 
(1917). 

BLIMP 

The  captive  observation  balloon  rejoices  in  the  above 
appellation  for  reasons  known  only  to  the  lads  who  use 
them  over  there. — Baltimore  Sun,  Sept.  29,  1918. 

St.  Johns,  N.  F.,  May  15.— The  United  States  Navy 
dirigible  airship  C-5,  which  arrived  here  this  forenoon, 
broke  her  moorings  at  Quidi  Vidi  this  afternoon  and 
disappeared  from  view  in  an  easterly  direction,  pro- 
pelled by  a  strong  wind.     .     .     . 

The  "blimp"  had  been  anchored  at  her  grounds,  but 
strong  winds  made  it  exceedingly  difficult  to  manage 
her.— New  York  Times,  May  16,  1919. 

Seaplanes,  dirigibles  (blimps),  and  kite  balloons  make 
good  scouts  because  of  the  large  areas  they  can  cover. — 
Commander  C.  C.  Gill,  Naval  Power  in  the  War 
(1914-1918). 

Two  can  play  at  the  bombing  game,  and  in  the  Dover 
Strait  the  English  "blimps"  take  a  hand  at  it,  those 
small  dirigibles  which  gleam  high  overhead  like  silvered 
sausages. — Ralph  D.  Paine,  The  Fighting  Fleets  (1918) . 

BLINGER 

The  shell  arrived  in  Fritzie's  "midst"  just  as  his  Ger- 
man finger  reached  out  to  fire  a  shell  of  gas  and  give  our 
boys  a  "blinger." — H.  B.  Mil  ward,  Over  the  Top. 


24  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

BLINKER 

There  are  classes  in  signalling,  semaphore,  and  dotter, 
and  at  night  with  the  "blinker"  that  sets  the  electric 
lamps  to  winking  and  flashing  the  letters  of  the  Morse 
code. — Ralph  D.  Paine,   The  Fighting  Fleets  (1918). 

BLUE,  BLUET 

A  French  soldier  is  also  spoken  of  as  a  "blue"  (bleu) 
appropriate  in  view  of  the  colour  of  the  new  army  uni- 
form. The  young  soldier,  who  has  been  called  up  since 
the  war  began,  is  a  "bluet"  (bleuet)  and  the  familiar 
blue  corn  flower  has  become  his  emblem. — Arthur  H. 
Warner,  New  York  Times,  Oct.  7,  1917. 

BLUE  TRIANGLE* 

At  the  base  hospitals  I  visited  the  huts  for  American 
nurses,  where  the  Blue  Triangle  means  all  the  refine- 
ments and  seclusions  and  respites  which  the  splendid 
bands  of  nurses  had  been  accustomed  to  at  home. 
Hostess-houses  for  our  enlisted  men  are  being  opened 
as  rapidly  as  possible,  in  which  the  soldiers  find  an  en- 
vironment possessing  all  those  feminine  touches  which 
they  miss  more  than  anything  else  while  on  foreign 
soil.* — Joseph  H.  Odell,  Atlantic  Monthly,  Nov.,  1918. 

BOCHE 

All  the  letters  from  our  soldiers  are  overflowing  with 
cheerfulness.     Where,   for   instance,   does   that  nick- 

•See  Red  Triangle. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  25 

name  come  from  applied  by  them  to  the  enemy — the 
"Boches?"  It  comes  from  where  so  many  more  have 
come;  its  author  is  nobody  and  everybody;  it  is  the 
spontaneous  product  of  that  Gallic  humour  which  jokes 
at  danger,  takes  liberties  with  it. — Rene  Doumic, 
before  French  Academy,  Oct.  26,  1914. 

The  word  "Boche"  appears  to  have  been  born  in  or 
about  the  year  1860  in  the  world  of  the  light-o'-loves, 
and  meant  simply  "mauvais  sujet"  as  opposed  to 
"muche,"  "muche"  being  defined  by  Rigaud  as  "  Jeune 
homme  timide,"  and  by  Del  van  (1866)  in  substantially 
the  same  sense. — D.  N.  Samson,  Saturday  Review, 
London,  Sept.  30,  1916. 

The  source  of  that  word  "boche,"  an  abbreviation  of 
"alboche"  or  "alleboche,"  has  been  a  subject  of  dis- 
cussion in  France  since  the  war  brought  the  term  into 
prominence.  The  most  plausible  explanation  seems 
to  be  that,  in  French  slang,  it  is  not  an  infrequent  device 
to  substitute  "boche"  or  "oche"  for  the  final  syllable 
of  a  word,  with  a  view  to  treating  it  in  a  trivial  or  dis- 
dainful way,  and  that  "alleboche"  has  been  thus  made 
from  "allemand,"  the  recognized  word  for  German. — 
Arthur  H.  Warner,  New  York  Times,  Oct.  7,  1917. 

It  was  applied  to  the  Germans  in  the  Franco-Prussian 
war.  You  will  find  it  many  times  so  used  in  Zola's 
realistic  "La  Debacle."  Previous  to  1870,  it  was 
merely  a  French  slang  word  applied  derogatively  to  any 
man.  "Ce  boche"  was  the  equivalent  of  our  "that 
chump,"  "that  blighter."— I.  M.,  New  York  Times, 
April  7,  1916. 


26  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

A  few  weeks  ago  we  printed  an  article  from  the  pen  of 
Mr.  Marion  Reedy,  in  which  Kipling  was  taken  to  task. 
Among  other  offenses  in  Mr.  Reedy's  view  was  Kipling's 
continual  use  of  the  word  Boche  for  German.  Mr. 
Reedy  felt  the  word  was  too  obscure  in  meaning  to  be 
warranted  for  use  by  so  eminent  a  writer.  So  some 
light  is  shed  for  both  of  them  by  Mr.  Warren  B.  Blake, 
who  quotes  the  Parisian  playwright,  Mr.  Maurice 
Donnay,  to  the  effect  that  "  the  word  boche  is  not  a  war- 
creation."  It  was  already  in  the  popular  vocabulary, 
though  not  in  the  dictionary  of  the  French  Academy. 
Mr. Donnay  describes  it  as  a  "telescope  word,"  likeawfo- 
bus,  formed  from  automobile  and  omnibus.  Taking  the 
French  word  for  German,  Allemand,  and  adding  caboche 
(thieves'  cant  for  "head")  we  get  Alboche,  which  was 
speedily  shortened  to  boche.  In  Reedy's  Mirror  (St. 
Louis),  Mr.  Blake  writes: 

"Mr.  Donnay  is  well  pleased  with  this  trouvaille; 
he  finds  it  equally  pleasing  to  ear  and  eye  and  a  fine 
piece  of  onomatopoeia.  'It  is  the  noise,'  he  explains, 
'made  by  a  fat  man  jumping  with  both  big  feet  together 
into  blood  and  mud.'  From  boche  indeed,  Mr. 
Donnay  derives  other  substantives:  bochie,  bochisme, 
bocherie,  bochonneries.  All  this  in  an  article  contributed 
to  the  Paris  Figaro  of  April  10,  1915." — Literary  Digest, 
Nov.  6,  1915. 

And  there  are  fellows  blinded  for  life  by  that  terrible 
mustard-gas.  But  the  worst  of  all,  mother,  is  the  train- 
loads  of  refugees,  containing  thousands  of  helpless 
women  and  children,  herded  like  animals  and  driven 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  27 

from  their  home  by  the  Boche  (pronounced  "bush"). 
You  should  hear  that  word  uttered  by  the  French.  It's 
a  curse. — Private  John  C.  Birk,  to  his  mother  at 
Conemaugh,  Pa.,  Literary  Digest,  Nov.  23,  1918. 

The  reprobation  of  the  outside  world  is  seen  to  have 
had  considerable  effect  upon  the  Kaiser's  complacence. 
He  cries  out  against  "the  detestable  word  Boche,"  and 
notes  that  its  use  is  getting  "ever  rarer"  in  France. 
This  because  "the  German  sword,"  with  "the  help  of 
our  good  old  God  up  there,"  is  regaining  us  the  respect 
of  all  the  world.— Literary  Digest,  May  18,  1918. 

BOCHIA 

There  did  not  remain  a  single  one  of  its  [St.  Quentin's] 
inhabitants  to  liberate.  Of  the  original  population  of 
56,000  not  an  old  man,  woman,  or  child  has  been  left. 
Hale  or  sick,  young  and  old,  they  have  been  carried 
away  into  what  our  allies  call  Bochia. — G.  H.  Perris, 
New  York  Times,  Oct.  4,  1918. 

BOIS  DE  LA  BRIGADE  DE  MARINE 

Army  Headquarters,  June  30,  1918. 
In  view  of  the  brilliant  conduct  of  the  Fourth  Brigade 
of  the  Second  United  States  Division,  which  in  a  spirited 
fight  took  Bouresches  and  the  important  strong  point 
of  Bois  de  Belleau,  stubbornly  defended  by  a  large 
enemy  force,  the  general  commanding  the  Sixth  Army 
orders  that  henceforth,  in  all  official  papers,  the  Bois 
de  Belleau  should  be  named  "Bois  de  la  Brigade  de 
Marine." — Division  General  Degoutte,  Command- 


28  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

ing  Sixth  Army.  Annual  Report  of  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  (1918). 

BOLOISM 

"Boloism"  as  a  term  of  reproach  promises  to  break  into 
the  English  language  along  with  many  other  words 
never  thought  of  before  the  war.  Therefore  the  activi- 
ties of  the  Kaiser's  agent*  will  probably  be  immortalized 
in  future  dictionaries,  as  were  the  acts  of  Judas  and 
Simon  Magus.  Scattered  through  the  English  language 
are  many  words  derived  from  proper  names,  some  re- 
sulting from  derogatory  acts  and  some  from  just  the 
opposite. — New  York  Sun,  Feb.  17,  1918. 

tJ  BOLSHEVIKI 

The  correct  explanation  seems  to  be  as  follows :  At  its 
convention  of  1903,  the  Russian  Social-Democratic 
Labour  Party  disagreed  upon  the  matter  of  program. 
Under  the  leadership  of  Lenine,  the  extreme  radicals 
finally  triumphed,  being  known  thereafter  as  the  Bolshe- 
viki,  or  "members  of  the  majority."  Their  defeated 
opponents  became  known  as  the  Mensheviki,  or  "  mem- 
bers of  the  minority."  Synonyms  for  Bolsheviki  and 
Mensheviki  are  Maximalists  and  Minimalists.  They 
are  also  known  as  the  Extreme  and  Moderate  sections 
of  the  Social-Democratic  Party.  Lincoln  Steffens  says 
that  the  Bolsheviki  are  the  "radicals  of  the  radicals," 
while  many  of  the  Bolsheviki  themselves  link  the  name 

*BoIo  Pacha,  a  Frenchman,  was  convicted  of  treason  by  a  court-martial  at  Paris 
on  Feb.  14, 1918,  and  sentenced  to  death. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  29 

with  anarchism.  Above  all,  it  should  be  remembered 
that  while  all  Socialists  are  now  claimed  to  have  Bol- 
shevist leanings,  the  Bolsheviki  proper  are  only  one 
branch  of  one  Socialist  Party  in  Russia. 

Though  the  Bolsheviki  first  saw  the  light  in  1903,  they 
came  into  international  prominence  only  when  in  1917 
they  were  successful  in  overthrowing  the  Kerensky 
Government. — A.  C.  Ratshesky,  New  York  Times, 
Nov.  24,  1918. 

Dealing  with  Russia,  the  speaker  [ex-President  Taft] 
said  that  the  Bolsheviki  were  an  enemy  to  society,  and 
that  their  doctrine,  shown  by  actual  practice,  was  that 
the  world  belongs  to  the  lowest  proletariat,  and  that 
everybody  with  thrift,  good  clothes,  and  a  clean  shave 
who  engaged  in  an  effort  to  better  himself  should  be 
killed— New  York  Times,  Dec.  10, 1918. 

The  Bolsheviki  are  the  extremists  of  socialism,  the 
whole-hoggers,  the  come-outers,  the  bitter-enders, 
the  no-compromisers,  the  intransigents.  Those  old 
Russian  revolutionists,  whom  we  used  to  call  "Nihi- 
lists" and  "Anarchists,"  and  whom  we  used  to  shudder 
at  even  while  we  sympathized,  are  looked  upon  by  the 
Bolsheviki  as  hopelessly  old  fashioned  and  reactionary, 
no  better  than  we  bourgeois  republicans  or  wealthy 
aristocrats.  The  present  government  of  Russia  is  not 
a  democracy  and  does  not  profess  to  be.  It  is  what  it 
calls  itself,  a  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat,  the  rule  of 
the  working  class,  an  inverted  autocracy. — Hamilton 
Holt,  Independent,  Dec.  14,  1918. 


SO  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

BOLSHEVIKISM 

"It  cannot  be,"  said  Senator  Thomas,  of  Colorado, 
"that  we  have  overthrown  autocracy  only  to  prepare 
the  world  for  Bolshevikism.  If  that  be  so,  we  have 
made  it  worse  than  ever." — New  York  Times,  Jan. 
4,  1919. 

BOLSHEVISM,  BOLSHEVIST 

Only  the  other  day  a  Vermont  newspaper  was  expressing 
bewilderment  over  the  ominous  word  that  came  out  of 
Russia,  "Bolshevism."  "By  the  way,"  it  remarked, 
"what's  the  etymology  of  'Bolshevism?'  A  Bolshevik 
might  practice  Bolshevikism;  so  might  the  Bolsheviki, 
but  how  do  we  get  rid  of  the  'k'  in  undertaking  to  angli- 
cize the  word?"— New  York  Times,  Feb.  3,  1919. 

A  Bolshevik,  if  we  want  to  anglicize  the  word,  is  a  Bol- 
shevist, and  it  is  a  matter  of  simple  reasoning  that  the 
ism  practiced  by  a  Bolshevist  is  "Bolshevism,"  just  as 
an  anarchist  is  a  believer  in  the  doctrines  of  anarchism. 
If  there  is  the  slightest  excuse  for  saying  that  a  Bolshevik 
practices  "Bolshevikism,"  then  etymological  analogy 
would  compel  us  to  refer  to  the  doctrine  of  anar- 
chists as  "anarchistism." — Providence  Journal,  Jan., 
1919. 

Bolshevism — the  universal  menace  to-day — is  a  Ger- 
man product,  German  framed  and  German  financed, 
the  prize  package  of  discord  that  Teutonic  cunning  has 
handed  the  world.     I  was  in  Petrograd  when  Lenine 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  31 

arrived.  Figuratively,  I  watched  him  open  his  Pan- 
dora box  of  dissension  and  let  loose  a  poison  gas.  I  have 
smelled  its  fumes  in  half  a  dozen  different  countries 
since  that  time.  Nowhere  have  they  been  more  deadly 
than  in  this  very  United  States  of  ours,  where  the  reptile 
of  Bolshevism  rears  its  head  as  the  I.  W.  W.  It  has 
standardized  anarchy,  put  a  premium  on  destruction, 
imposed  a  penalty  on  prosperity.  It  is  the  new  Prus- 
sianism. — Isaac  F.  Marcosson,  New  York  Times, 
April   15,   1919. 

BOY  HOWDY 

"Boy  howdy,"  said  the  officer  who  was  waiting  on 
deck  for  me,  the  same  man  I  had  seen,  on  various  oc- 
casions, tearing  through  the  Army  lines  at  the  annual 
Navy-Army  football  games  in  Philadelphia,  and  as  big 
and  husky  as  he  was  when  he  used  to  spread  the  Army 
tackles  all  round  the  sward  when  they  sought  to  impede 
his  progress. 

"Boy  howdy,"  said  another,  the  keen,  clear-eyed  gun- 
nery expert,  whose  skill  and  knowledge  I  had  learned 
to  respect  and  admire  in  Washington. 

"Boy  howdy,"  as  they  came,  one  after  another,  men 
bearing  famous  American  naval  names,  and  worthy  of 
them,  men  who  were  making  new  famous  American 
names  for  themselves  and  their  sons — why,  it  was  like 
Old  Home  Week  at  the  Army  and  Navy  Club  in  Wash- 
ington, and  I  took  another  look  at  the  flag  standing  out 
in  the  breeze  above  me  and  just  naturally  gave  three 


32  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

cheers  for  the  Red,  White,  and  Blue.  We  were  a  long 
way  from  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  but  everybody  was  on 
the  job. — Samuel  G.  Blythe,  Saturday  Evening  Post, 
Nov.  2,  1918. 

BUDDY* 

Hess  dropt  me  and,  thinking  it  impossible  for  him  to 
get  me  to  the  lines  alone,  he  piled  up  a  half  dozen  bodies 
of  my  poor  dead  "  buddies  "  and  barricaded  my  position. 
There  I  remained  for  several  hours  longer,  and  finally 
during  a  lull  in  the  battle  I  was  gotten  back  to  the  lines. 
The  boys  piled  up  around  me  were  my  own  camp-mates 
whom  I  knew  and  recognized. — Joyce  Lewis,  Literary 
Digest,  Jan.  25,  1919. 

One  can  fancy  him  [William  Snell],  however,  as  standing 
on  the  deck  of  the  submarine,  teeth  chattering,  eye- 
balls rolling,  while  he  mutters  to  a  ship-mate : 
"W-hat  yo'  reckon  d-dese  yere  Germans  aimin'  to  do, 
b-buddy?" — Ralph  D.  Paine,  The  Fighting  Fleets 
(1918). 

BULLETIZE 

We  ran  on  until  they  [the  Boches]  opened  up  with  their 
machine  guns,  toward  which  they  had  been  running. 
We  dropt,  of  course.  There  was  not  much  space  they 
didn't  "  bulletize."  They  mowed  that  field  thoroughly. 
— Corporal  Noel  E.  Paton,  to  his  mother  at  Fayette- 
ville,  N.  C,  Literary  Digest,  Nov.  23,  1918. 

*See  get  it  and  guy. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  33 

BURBANK* 

"To  burbank"  is  by  this  time  practically  a  legitimate 
active  verb  in  the  "United  States  language,"  in  the 
same  category  with  " fletcherize"  and  "kodak." — 
Literary  Digest,  April  10,  1915. 

BUSf 

The  stunt  will  be  to  make  sure  of  the  delivery  of  the 
busses,  and  get  to  the  front  before  evening.  .  .  . 
Golly,  but  I  slept!  and  I  had  a  peacherino  of  a  dream. 
I  was  sprouting  wings.  I  soared! — I  soared! — scat- 
tering all  the  little  busses  behind  me  as  I  flew. — Marcel 
Nadaud,  Atlantic  Monthly,  November,  1918. 

It  is  not  difficult  with  these  machines  because  they  take 
their  time  and  one  can  go  through  the  formula,  "Pull — 
kick — cut  and  give  'em  the  gun  again,"  quite  deliber- 
ately. The  old  bus  pokes  her  nose  up  into  the  air  to  a 
stall,  the  kick  on  the  rudder  turns  her  over  on  her  side, 
and  she  slips  quite  naturally  into  a  straight  dive,  which 
is  the  only  terrifying  moment. — From  an  American  in 
France,  Independent,  Nov.  16,  1918. 

BUZZER 

See  Iddy-Umpty. 

BUZZ  WIRE 

We  proceeded  along  a  narrow,  slippery  path  by  the  side 
of  which  ran  a  buzz  wire,  which  we  were  in  constant 

•From  Luther  Burbank  (1849 — ),  originator  of  new  fruits,  flowers,  etc. 
tSee  joy-stick. 


34  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

danger  of  tripping  over.  A  buzz  wire  is  a  telephone 
wire  with  an  accompanying  sound  so  jangled  and  dis- 
cordant that  no  German  tapper  can  listen  in  successfully 
to  any  conversation. — Maude  Radford  Warren,  Sat- 
urday Evening  Post,  Oct.  12,  1918. 

BY-PRODUCTS  ENGINEER 

A  new  composition  that  is  just  like  india-rubber,  "only 
more  so,"  is  editorially  announced  by  The  Scientific 
American  (New  York,  September  7) .  The  editor  pref- 
aces his  account  by  the  statement  that  this  invention 
is  typical  of  many  that  are  appearing  just  now,  in  that 
it  is  the  discovery  of  a  new  profession — the  "by-products 
engineer."  The  specialty  of  this  type  of  engineer  is  the 
utilization  of  hitherto  worthless  by-products. — Literary 
Digest,  Oct.  19,  1918. 


CAFARD 

The  war  seems  to  have  made  of  the  average  soldier  a 
philosopher  and  a  fatalist,  who  jests  at  danger  and 
radiates  cheerfulness,  but  there  are  occasions  when  he 
does  not  live  up  to  this  part.  One  of  them  is  when,  on 
leave  from  the  trenches,  he  reaches  the  last  day  of  his 
holiday  and  must  return  to  the  front.  Then  he  loses 
his  smile  and  his  banter  and  in  soldier  slang  has  the 
"cafard."  Literally,  the  word  means  cockroach. — 
Arthur  H.  Warner,  New  York  Times,  Oct.  7,  1917. 


CAHENSLYISM 

One  of  the  most  interesting  chapters  in  the  book  [Ten 
Years  Near  the  German  Frontier  by  Maurice  Francis 
Egan]  is  "The  Religious  Propaganda."  The  Kaiser 
looked  on  the  late  Archbishop  Ireland  of  Minneapolis 
as  an  enemy  of  Germany  because  that  eminent  prelate 
had  opposed  the  movement  known  as  "Cahenslyism." 
It  was  the  aim  of  Peter  Paul  Cahensly  to  put  the  Eng- 
lish language  in  the  background  in  teaching  religion  to 
German  subjects  in  America. — New  York  Times  Booh 
Review,  March  2,  1919. 

35 


36  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

The  success  of  Archbishop  Ireland,  who  led  the  fight 
against  "Cahenslyism,"  as  the  movement  to  Germanize 
the  parochial  schools  was  called,  throws  a  side-light  on 
the  present. — Literary  Digest,  Oct.  19,  1918. 

CAMION 

Besides  carrying  the  gas  on  the  flat  cars,  motor  trucks 
or  "camions"  as  they  are  now  called  throughout  the 
Allied  army,  there  are  also  generation  stations  situated 
behind  the  lines. — Electrical  Experimenter,  Nov., 
1918. 

Thence  through  the  dusk  you  dimly  see  ambulances  flit 
past;  or  camions  rumbling  heavily,  like  your  own,  some 
empty,  others  bearing  wounded  on  stretchers  arranged 
crosswise. — Stories  of  Americans  in  the  World  War 
(1918),  p.  36. 

CAMOUFLAGE* 

There's  a  new  word  in  the  English  language — and  by 
that  I  mean  the  corrupt  dialect  of  our  mother  tongue 
used  in  the  British  Isles,  not  the  pure  and  yet  improved 
variety  current  in  North  America.  As  soon  as  this  war 
is  over  and  Tommy  resumes  his  civilian  activities,  the 
British  will  be  getting  out  new  editions  of  those  diction- 
aries wherein,  they  vainly  believe,  is  embalmed  the 
standard  English  language  of  the  world.  And  in  the 
C  section,  probably  without  the  comment  of  "argot" 
or  "slang"  or  "colloquial,"  or  any  other  mark  of  dis- 


•See  dazzle  painting. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  37 

reputability,  will  appear  camouflage.  Doubtless  it  will 
make  its  way,  though  more  slowly,  into  those  purer  re- 
positories of  the  tongue  published  in  Boston  or  New 
York;  for  we  are  sending  an  army  over  to  France  just 
now,  and  the  first  new  word  they  will  learn  at  the  Front 
will  be  camouflage.  The  term  was  pretty  nearly  un- 
known, even  to  the  French,  three  years  ago;  and  the 
thing  it  represents  was  absolutely  unknown.  It  is 
pronounced,  at  present,  French  fashion,  like  this — 
"cam-oo-flazh,"  the  first  a  being  short,  as  in  cat;  the 
second  a  broader,  as  in  harm. 

It  had  laboured  along  for  centuries,  a  rare  and  ob- 
scure French  word,  having  several  meanings,  mostly 
slang.  But  in  the  theatrical  business  it  signified  make- 
up. The  scene  painters  of  the  Parisian  theaters  carried 
it  with  them  to  the  war  and  fixed  it  in  army  slang;  for 
just  about  that  time  the  armies  of  Europe  began  to 
introduce  a  new  branch  of  tactics  into  warfare.  By 
the  first  winter  of  the  war  both  sides  were  at  it.  The 
British,  as  they  worked  up  to  efficiency,  adopted  the 
method  and  learned  the  word. 

This  word — having  none  other  for  the  process — they 
added  to  the  vocabulary  of  the  British  Army;  it  was 
new,  and  it  was  susceptible  to  a  great  variety  of  meta- 
phorical uses.  At  latest  accounts  the  British  soldiers 
were  working  it  to  death.  They  use  it  as  a  noun,  verb 
and  adjective.  They  use  it  for  any  variety  of  conceal- 
ment— moral,  spiritual,  or  intellectual. — Will  Irwin, 
Saturday  Evening  Post,  Sept.  29,  1917. 


409678 


38  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

La  guerre  a  cree  l'art  du  camouflage,  un  art  qui  ne  com- 
porte  aucun  souci  du  beau,  l'artiste  n'ayant  en  vue 
qu'un  seul  but:  le  trompe-l'oeil. 

Les  premiers  essais  de  cet  art  nouveau  ont  eu  pour 
but,  on  le  sait,  d'empecher  l'artillerie  de  reperer  les 
canons,  les  convois,  les  tanks,  etc.,  bref,  tous  les  impedi- 
menta qui  constituent  le  train  d'une  armee. — Quoted 
in  Nouvelles  de  France,  Sept.  5, 1918,  from  Le  Figaro. 

Abbott  H.  Thayer,  the  well-known  academician,  was 
the  first  individual  ever  to  take  up  the  art  of  conceal- 
ment, when  he  began  the  study  of  the  protective  colour- 
ing of  animals  twenty-five  years  ago.  He  noted  that 
such  beasts  as  the  zebra  and  okapi  were  merged  in  the 
landscape  at  a  few  yards  distance;  and  he  evolved  the 
principle  that  the  breaking  of  outline  was  the  destruc- 
tion of  visibility. 

Little  was  thought  of  camouflage  at  the  onset  of  the 
present  big  conflict.  There  were  the  officers'  white-kid 
gloves — fatal  targets  for  German  snipers — and  waving 
plumes;  the  burnished  cuirass  and  the  pennoned  lance. 
Then  the  two  contending  lines  dug  themselves  in  and 
locked  horns.  Concealment  became  all  important — 
concealment  from  the  aero  with  the  eagle  eye;  from  the 
artillery  observation-station,  binocular-eyed;  from  the 
practiced  glance  of  the  sharpshooter  and  the  keen  vision 
of  the  patrols.  Artists  in  the  ranks  busied  themselves, 
a  new  branch  of  the  art  military  was  born — camouflage. 

To-day  it  is  highly  developed.  There  are  two 
branches,   invisibility  and  imitation.       A  supply-train 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  39 

may  look  like  a  row  of  cottages;  that  is  imitation.  A 
screen  tops  a  great  gun  so  that  the  green  of  the  screen 
blends  with  the  grass  of  the  meadow;  that  is  invisibility. 
There  is  a  third  offshoot — the  art  of  making  compell- 
ing replicas  of  camps,  guns,  piles  of  supplies,  trenches, 
ammunition  depots,  and  the  like,  which  are  not  bona 
fide  at  all,  but  the  aero  man  thinks  they  are,  and  wastes 
his  bombs  and  energy  attacking  nothing  worth  while. 
Such  is  the  great  game  of  hocus-pocus. — New  York 
World,  Sept.,  1917. 

While  camouflage  is  new,  as  a  word  applied  to  the  de- 
ceptive devices  adopted  to  fool  the  enemy,  it  dates 
back  as  a  practise  to  Bible  days  when  Gideon,  with 
^hree  hundred  men,  put  to  flight  a  force  of  135,000  Mid- 
ianites  by  providing  each  of  his  small  force  with  a  pitcher 
containing  a  light.  According  to  the  prevailing  cus- 
toms of  war  in  those  days,  only  the  commander  of  a 
corps  carried  a  light,  so  that  when  Gideon's  men  broke 
their  pitchers  and  displayed  their  lights  it  is  easy  to 
believe  that  the  effect  of  the  camouflage  was  quite 
startling.  At  all  events  it  worked,  for  the  Midianites, 
thinking  each  light  represented  a  company,  fled  in 
dismay. 

The  artificial  forest  idea  as  developed  in  the  present 
war  is  of  ancient  origin,  for,  says  the  Kansas  City  Star: 
In  Shakespeare's  "Macbeth"  each  man  in  the  army 
of  Malcolm  carried  a  branch  of  a  tree  from  Birnam 
Wood  when  he  approached  Macbeth' s  hosts.  It  had 
been  predicted  that  King  Macbeth  would  not  be  in  dan- 
ger until  Birnam  Wood  moved  toward  his  castle.   When 


40  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

Macbeth  saw  what  he  thought  was  the  forest  approach- 
ing, he  became  frightened  and  lost  the  day. 

"Camouflaging  trenches  and  breastworks  in  the  Civil 
War  was  done  with  branches  of  trees  and  sod,"  Capt. 
E.  R.  Monfort,  Cincinnati,  former  commander-in-chief 
of  the  G.  A.  R.,  says. — Literary  Digest,  Feb.  16, 1918. 

The  work  is  founded  on  the  theory  of  the  Indian  who 
painted  himself  so  he  would  be  lost  in  the  desert  when 
hiding  from  animals  or  pursuers.  The  trick  is  being 
used  to  conceal  outposts  and  observers  who  are  sta- 
tioned at  dangerous  points.  Many  false  posts  have 
been  constructed  for  observers.  I  have  been  informed 
in  complete  detail  of  how  an  outpost  that  proved  of 
great  service  was  substituted  overnight  for  a  dead  horse 
in  No  Man's  Land.  The  dead  horse  lay  between  the 
lines  on  a  bit  of  rising  ground.  During  the  night  the 
dead  horse  was  removed  and  the  sculptors  made  a  fake 
horse,  which  was  put  out  with  a  man  inside.  His  busi- 
ness was  to  remain  there  during  the  day  and  come  back 
to  the  lines  at  night  to  report.  As  his  post  was  above 
the  German  trenches,  he  was  able  to  keep  close  watch 
on  the  enemy's  movements  at  that  point. — Ernest 
Peixotto,  New  York  Evening  Sun,  May,  1917. 

CAMOUFLEUR 

Recent  orders  of  the  Government  to  the  engineering 
department  of  the  United  States  Army  to  stop  enlisting 
men  as  camoufleurs  in  a  special  camouflage  division  ends 
a  chapter  in  military  camouflage  in  America.  A  little 
more  than  a  year  ago  it  was  doubtful  whether  or  not 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  H 

the  army  would  have  any  great  use  for  camoufleurs 
in  the  forces  abroad.  By  the  recent  decree  military 
camouflage  is  made  an  essential  in  every  regiment,  like 
engineering,  trench  digging,  map  making,  road  building, 
and  sharpshooting.  There  are  now,  according  to 
military  camoufleurs  in  New  York  City,  about  500 
expert  camoufleurs  abroad  with  the  Pershing  forces. 
The  new  order  makes  it  necessary  for  each  regiment 
in  every  training  camp  on  this  side  to  have  at  least 
sixteen  camoufleurs  to  train  other  men  in  the  new  art  of 
camouflage. 

American  women  camoufleurs  are  being  trained  ac- 
cording to  the  same  method  as  the  men,  under  the 
Women's  League  for  National  Service  and  under  Lieu- 
tenant Towle.     Discussing  their  work  he  said: 

"There  isn't  any  reason  why  the  women  shouldn't 
do  as  well  as  the  men  as  camoufleurs — that  is,  in  mak- 
ing the  materials  behind  the  lines.  It  isn't  heavy  work, 
but  it  demands  ingenious  workers,  skilled  in  details." — 
New  York  Times  Magazine,  May  26,  1918. 

CAN* 

These  depth  bombs  really  deserve  a  eulogy  of  their  own. 
They  have  done  more  toward  winning  the  war  than  all 
the  giant  howitzers  whose  caliber  has  stupefied  a  world. 
In  appearance  and  mechanism  they  are  the  simplest  of 
affairs.  The  Navy  always  refers  to  them  as  cans — 
"I  dropped  a  can  right  on  his  head";  "It  was  the  last 

*See  ash-can. 


42  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

can  that  did  the  business." — Henry  B.  Beston,  Ladies* 
Home  Journal,  Nov.,  1918. 

CANTEEN 

A  canteen  is  a  general  store  in  which  tobacco,  cigarettes, 
chocolate,  soft  drinks,  and  sundries  necessary  to  the 
soldiers'  comfort  are  sold  at  cost.  Canteens  are  ex-> 
tremely  difficult  to  run  for  three  reasons:  the  Y.  M.  C. 
A.'s  lack  of  experience  in  store-keeping;  the  scarcity 
of  provisions  owing  to  restricted  shipping  and  rail 
transportation;  and,  at  the  front,  the  constant  move- 
ment of  army  units.  Nevertheless,  despite  all  ob- 
stacles, they  are  operated  with  an  amazing  degree  of 
success,  and  the  presence  of  American  women  as  can- 
teen workers  serves  to  make  them  attractive  and  home- 
like.— Joseph  H.  Odell,  Atlantic  Monthly,  Novem- 
ber, 1918. 

CARRY  ON 

There  is  no  explanation  save  the  great  army  phrase 
"Carry  on."  We  "carry  on"  because,  if  we  don't  we 
shall  let  other  men  down  and  put  their  lives  in  danger. 
And  there's  more  than  that — we  all  want  to  live  up  to 
the  standard  that  prompted  us  to  come. — Coningsby 
Dawson,  Carry  On  (1917). 

CASABA 

The  word  "casaba"  undoubtedly  has  been  taken  from 
a  place-name  quite  popular  in  Asia  Minor.     It  is  usually 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  43 

transliterated  as  Kassabah  in  atlases  of  the  region. 
There  are  five  towns  in  Asia  Minor  bearing  this  name. 
The  one  which  has  given  its  name  to  melons,  however, 
is  located  some  12  or  15  miles  from  Smyrna  in  a  valley 
which  has  been  long  noted  as  a  very  favoured  agricul- 
tural region.  Two  types  of  melons  have  been  brought 
to  this  country  from  this  place  and  have  each  been 
called  casaba. — D.  N.  Shoemaker,  letter,  Dec.  19, 
1918. 

CHANDELLE 

Snatches  of  talk  (unintelligible  outside  the  "fancy") 
reach  one;  we,  of  course,  know  only  the  French,  but  the 
R.  F.  C.  [Royal  Flying  Corps]  stuff  is  equally  cryptic. 
"Spotted  him  at  four  thousand  eight,  'piqued'  on  him, 
got  under  his  tail,  did  a  chandelle,  got  in  a  good  rafale, 
did  a  glissade,  went  into  a  vrille,  and  lost  so  much  height 
I  could  not  catch  him  again." 

An  R.  F.  C.  man  would  say,  "Spotted  him  at  forty- 
eight  hundred,  dove  on  him,  got  under  his  tail,  did  a 
zoom,  got  in  a  good  burst,  did  a  side-slip,  went  into  a 
spin,"  etc.  I  may  say  that  "chandelle"  or  "zoom" 
means  a  sudden,  very  steep  leap  upward  (limited  in 
length  and  steepness  by  the  power  and  speed  of  the 
machine).  Some  of  our  latest  machines  will  do  the 
most  extraordinary  feats  in  this  line — things  that  an 
old  experienced  pilot  in  America  would  have  to  see  to 
believe.  A  "glissade"  is  a  wing-slip  to  the  side,  and 
down;  a  "vrille"  is  a  spinning  nose-dive. — Charles 
Bernard  Nordhoff,  Atlantic  Monthly,  Aug.,  1918. 


44  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

An  approved  method  of  attack  was  to  dive  out  of  the 
sun  at  the  rearmost  Boche  of  a  Hun  formation,  shoot 
him  down  if  you  had  the  luck,  chandelle  or  spiral  up- 
ward, and  dive  again  at  the  next  tail-ender.  I  tried 
the  trick  once  and  got  as  far  as  the  first  act  in  the  pro- 
gram, but  I  had  shut  off  my  pressure  and  forgot  about 
it,  and  when,  after  crashing  my  first  Hun,  I  tried  to 
regain  my  altitude,  the  Spad  refused  to  climb. — Cap- 
tain  Edward  Victor  Rickenbacker,  United  States 
Air  Service,  March,  1919. 

y    CHEER-0 

The  British  have  a  funny  word — 

Cheer-O! 
At  first  it  seemed  a  bit  absurd — 

Cheer-O! 
They  said  it  when  we  joined  the  fleet, 
They  say  it  now  when  e'er  we  meet, 
Till  smilingly  we  all  repeat, 

Cheer-O! 

They  say  it  when  they  take  a  drink — 

Cheer-O! 
They  say  it  in  their  sleep,  I  think — 

Cheer-O! 
They'll  say  it  when  they  meet  the  Hun, 
They'll  fire  it  with  the  opening  gun, 
They'll  sing  it  when  the  battle's  won — 

Cheer-O! 
Comrades  of  the  Mist  and  Other  Rhymes  of  the  Grand 
Fleet  (1919). 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  45 

CHEF  DE  BATAILLON 

Psychologist,  pathologist,  carpenter,  builder,  engineer, 
cook,  physician,  scout,  judge,  father — get  all  these 
professions  together,  none  of  which  are  learned  at  St. 
Cyr,  and  you  have  a  good  Chef  de  bataillon. — General 
Malleterre,  Harper  s  Magazine,  Oct.,  1917. 


CHEMICAL  SENSE 

According  to  Prof.  John  B.  Watson,  chief  of  the  depart- 
ment of  experimental  psychology  and  animal  behaviour, 
of  Johns  Hopkins  University,  the  tendency  to  use  the 
name  "chemical  sense"  has  grown  rapidly  of  late. 
There  are  those  senses,  sensations,  and  organs  of  sense 
which  man  lacks.  Insects,  fish,  bats,  and  other  creatures 
have  a  great  advantage  over  mankind  in  the  number 
and  variety  of  senses  possessed. 

The  "  chemical  sense  "  is  the  power  present  in  fish  tissues 
to  recognize,  distinguish,  and  separate  poisons  and  other 
chemicals  from  one  another.  Man  has  this  sense  to  a 
very  slight  extent  in  his  taste,  smell,  and  mucous  mem- 
brane sensations.  Animals,  however,  can  do  much 
more  than  perceive,  smell,  taste,  noxious  substances, 
cuts,  burns,  and  bruises. — Washington  Times,  April 
27,  1915. 

CHEVAL  DE  BOIS 

See  lashay. 


4G  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

CHINAFICATION 

"Chinafication"  was  Theodore  Roosevelt's  word  for  the 
state  of  helplessness  to  which  pacifism  would  reduce 
America. — Literary  Digest,  May  31,  1919. 

CLEBER 

Another  word  to  which  Mr.  Dauzat  can  supply  no  key 
is  cleber,  which  means  to  eat.  It  has  a  shade  of  mean- 
ing which  distinguishes  it  from  the  more  ordinary  bec- 
queter.  Becqueter  means  to  eat  in  the  ordinary  routine; 
cleber  means  to  eat  after  one  has  been  almost  or  quite 
starving.  Possibly,  in  the  usual  evolution  of  such 
words,  the  distinction  has  by  now  disappeared.  It 
certainly  existed  a  year  ago,  when  it  was  made  clear 
to  the  present  writer,  and  it  gives  force  to  the  explana- 
tion then  proposed,  that  this  word  also  belongs  to  the 
soldier  slang  of  the  First  Empire.  Kleba  is  the  Russian 
for  bread,  and  the  starving  soldiers  in  the  retreat  are 
said  to  have  called  out  'Papa,  kleba  /'  to  Napoleon." — 
London  Times,  review  of  Dauzat 's  L' Argot  de  la  Guerre 
(1918). 

CLICK 

Our  Machine  Gun  Company  lost  seventeen  killed  and 
thirty-one  wounded  in  that  little  local  affair  of 
"straightening  the  line,"  while  the  other  companies 
clicked  it  worse  than  we  did. — Arthur  Guy  Empey,  Over 
the  Top  (1917). 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  47 

"Move  a  bit  faster,  mate,"  he  cries,  "unless  you  want 
to  click." — Captain  A.  P.  Corcoran,  Ladies'  Home 
Journal,  Oct.,  1918. 

COAL-BOX 

See  crump. 

COLLEGE  DES  ETATS-UNIS 

A  further  instance  is  the  "College  des  Etats-Unis," 
which  a  Franco-American  committee,  made  up  of  in- 
tellectual leaders  of  the  two  countries,  is  establishing  in 
Paris,  and  which  is  proposing  as  the  first  point  of  its 
active  programme  the  concerted  study  of  progress 
made  in  war  surgery,  in  war  medicine,  in  war  radiology. 
— Gustave  Rodriguez,  Scribner's  Monthly,  Nov.,  1918, 
p.  555. 

COMMUNITY  SECRETARY 

Washington,  November  3. — The  very  newest  thing  in 
war  organizations  made  its  debut  at  Bridgeport,  Conn., 
a  short  time  ago  when  Harrison  G.  Streeter,  of  that  city, 
was  elected  "community  secretary"  in  the  pay  of  the 
United  States  government. 

To  the  so-called  average  citizen  who  knows  that  there 
are  already  more  war  organizations  than  he  can  re- 
member the  names  of,  and  that  all  of  them  want  money, 
it  may  seem  that  another  is  unnecessary.  But  this 
newest  one  is  a  peace,  as  well  as  a  war,  organization. 
And  it  does  not  want  money;  it  wants  only  cooperation. 


48  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

Its  ultimate  purpose  is  to  place  a  paid  representative 
of  the  federal  government  in  every  community  in  the 
United  States  for  the  purpose  of  helping  people  to 
understand  and  use  their  national  government  at  Wash- 
ington. Every  American  citizen  of  organizing  ability — 
and  the  war  has  brought  them  forth  in  every  part  of 
the  country — should  know  of  this  plan  and  consider 
its  applicability  to  his  own  home  town. — Baltimore 
Star,  Nov.  6,  1918. 

CONTACT 

Essence  et  gazl  [Oil  and  gas !]  you  call  to  your  mechani- 
cian, adjusting  your  gasolene  and  air  throttles  while  he 
grips  the  propeller. 

Contact !  he  shrieks,  and  Contact !  you  reply.  You  snap 
on  the  switch,  he  spins  the  propeller,  and  the  motor 
takes.  Drawing  forward  out  of  line,  you  put  on  full 
power,  race  across  the  grass,  and  take  the  air. — James 
R.  McConnell,  Flying  for  France  (1916). 

COOTIE 

From  that  time  on  my  friends  the  "cooties"  were  con- 
stantly with  me.  "Cooties,"  or  body  lice,  are  the  bane 
of  Tommy's  existence. — Arthur  Gut  Empey,  Over  the 
Top  (1917). 

COPAIN 

Scarcely  any  one  who  has  read  anything  of  the  war, 
however,  has  failed  to  learn  at  least  a  few  of  the  most- 
used  words.     He  knows,  of  course,  that  poilu  (hairy) 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  49 

means  a  soldier  at  the  front,  that  marmite  (pot)  means 
shell,  and  pruneau  (prune)  means  bullet.  Bosche, 
a  German,  and  copain  (a  good  old-French  word  lately 
revived)  a  comrade. — Gelett  Burgess,  Century,  Sept., 
1916. 

COTERIST 

There's  no  use  looking  in  the  dictionary  for  the  word 
"coterist";  it's  brand  new;  I  have  just  made  it  myself. 
It  means  one  who  fancies  the  sort  of  pleasures  that  are 
peculiar  to  coteries.  A  coterie  is  a  set,  or  clique.  .  .  . 
I  don't  want  any  kind  of  enjoyment  that  is  exclusive. 
It's  sure  to  be  unwholesome.  I  hate  the  word  "ex- 
clusive" anyhow. — Frank  Crane,  New  York  Globe, 
Oct.  24,  1918. 

COUCHY,  CUSHY 

Since  uncertain  French  is  mixed  with  English,  a 
"couchy"  wound — no  doubt  from  the  French 
"coucher" — stands  for  an  injury  necessitating  a  short 
layoff  in  hospital. — Atlantic  Monthly,  Feb.,  1917. 

I  was  highly  elated  because  I  was,  as  I  thought,  in  for  a 
cushy  job  back  at  the  base. — Arthur  Guy  Empey, 
Over  the  Top  (1917). 

CRASH  DIVE 

Now,  a  submarine  crew  is  a  well-trained  machine. 
There  are  no  shouted  orders.  If  a  submarine  captain 
wants  to  send  his  boat  under  quickly,  he  simply  touches 
the  button  of  a  Klaxon;  the  horn  gives  a  demoniac  yell 


50  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

throughout  the  ship,  and  each  man  does  what  he  ought 
to  do  at  once.  Such  a  performance  is  called  a  "crash 
dive." — Henry  B.  Beston,  Atlantic  Monthly,  Nov., 
1918. 

CREEPING  BARRAGE 

The  next  step  was  the  development  of  the  "creeping 
barrage,"  which  was,  I  believe,  British  in  origin.  The 
enemy's  trenches,  though  roughly  parallel  to  your  own, 
are  never  exactly  parallel.  Sometimes  there  is  a  con- 
siderable difference  in  alignment.  Your  trenches,  for 
instance,  in  the  particular  sector  for  which  the  attack 
is  planned,  might  be  roughly  a  straight  line,  while  the 
enemy's  might  be  a  sinuous  one. 

Photographs  taken  from  the  air  (the  Allies  had  begun 
photography  in  the  first  autumn  of  the  war  and  brought 
it  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection)  had  exactly  plotted 
for  you  upon  a  large  scale  map  the  enemy's  front 
trench;  your  barrage  fire  began  in  front  of  your  own 
trenches  along  a  line  corresponding  to  the  shape  of 
your  own  trenches,  but  as  it  approached  the  enemy's 
trench  it  would  take  more  and  more  the  shape  of  his 
line. — Belloc's  Weekly  War  Review,  7Baltimore  Sun, 
Feb.  24, 1918. 

CRUCIFIXION,  CRUCIFY 

Then  comes  the  famous  Field  Punishment  No.  1. 
Tommy  has  nicknamed  it  "crucifixion."  It  means 
that  a  man  is  spread  eagled  on  a  limber  wheel  two 
hours  a  day  for  twenty-one  days.     During  this  time 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  51 

he  only  gets  water,  bully  beef,  and  biscuits  for  his 
chow.  You  get  "en  icified  "for  repeated  minor  offences . 
— Arthur  Guy  Empey,  Over  the  Top  (1917). 

CRUMP 

Captain  Louis  Keene  in  Crumps  (1917)  says  that  the 
shell  called  a  "Jack  Johnson,'  then  a  "Black  Maria," 
is  now  a  "Crump"  because  it  makes  a  sort  of  cru-ump 
sound  when  it  explodes. 

The  British  troops  in  the  trenches  accumulated  half  a 
dozen  slang  terms  to  name  the  variety  of  detonating 
missiles  they  were  in  the  habit  of  receiving  from  the 
enemy.  The  larger  shells  filled  with  high  explosives 
were  called  "black  Marias,"  "Jack  Johnsons,"  and 
"coal-boxes,"  until  some  more  luckily  inspired  islander 
was  moved  to  call  them  "crumps,"  the  new  word  being 
an  attempt  to  suggest  the  ripping  report  of  the  explosion 
with  which  they  end  their  aerial  career. — Brander 
Matthews,   Mvnsey's   Magazine,   April,    1919. 

CUBISM 

As  pseudo-realistic  tendencies,  Cubism  and  Futurism 
must  for  a  moment  detain  us.  Cubism,  the  word  is  a 
misnomer,  appeals  to  our  whole  body  of  visual  knowl- 
edge. We  know  much  more  than  the  figure  in  a  single 
aspect.  Why,  then,  paint  or  sculpture  it  in  a  single 
aspect?  We  know  it  all  around,  an  infinite  number  of 
its  contours  are  present  to  our  mind's  eye.  Then  put 
down  as  many  of  these  contours  as  are  significant,  and 
we  shall  have  the  pictorial  equivalent  of  the  real  mental 


52  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

image.  Or,  take  the  argument  a  stage  further.  We 
not  merely  know,  say,  the  cobweb  of  contours  and 
sections  which  denotes  a  Man  on  a  Balcony,  but  we 
might  also  well  know  what  he  was  seeing  at  the  time  and 
what  he  was  thinking  about.  As  part  of  our  knowledge 
this,  too,  ought  to  find  its  place  in  the  picture,  and  it 
does.  As  our  knowledge  grew,  we  might  have  to  sug- 
gest the  man's  ancestry  and  personal  history.  Every- 
thing, in  short,  that  belongs  significantly  in  our  mind 
as  regards  the  subject-matter  by  that  token  belongs  in 
the  picture  also.  The  notion  is  by  no  means  uningeni- 
ous,  and  has  a  perverse  logic  of  its  own.  It  has  been 
formulated  by  persons  of  distinct  intellectual  ability. 
It  is  easier  to  feel  its  absurdity  than  to  show  it. — Frank 
Jewett  Mather,  Jr.,  Nation,  Feb.  3,  1916. 

CUBIST 

It  is  vitally  necessary  to  move  forward  and  to  shake 
off  the  dead  hand,  often  the  fossilized  dead  hand,  of  the 
reactionaries;  and  yet  we  have  to  face  the  fact  that  there 
is  apt  to  be  a  lunatic  fringe  among  the  votaries  of  any 
forward  movement.  In  this  recent  art  exhibition  the 
lunatic  fringe  was  fully  in  evidence,  especially  in  the 
rooms  devoted  to  the  Cubists  and  the  Futurists,  or 
Near-Impressionists.  —  Theodore  Roosevelt,  His- 
tory as  Literature  (1913),  p.  305. 

CUCKOO  AEROPLANE 

See  torpedoplane. 

CUSHY 

See  couchy. 


D 

DAZZLE  PAINTING* 

There  has  been  developed,  however,  particularly  during 
the  last  year,  a  system  of  so-called  "dazzle"  painting — 
the  vessel  being  painted  in  an  apparently  grotesque 
and  bizarre  manner  for  the  purpose,  not  of  rendering  it 
invisible,  but  rendering  it  difficult  for  the  submarine 
commander,  peering  through  his  periscope  for  a  few 
seconds  at  a  time,  to  determine  the  course  of  the  vessel. 
— Annual  Report  of  Secretary  of  the  Navy  (1918). 

DEFEATISM 

The  French  Army  was  still  heroic  and  undaunted,  but 
defeatism  had  crippled  it  and  undermined  the  morale 
behind  the  lines. 

It  was  when  this  situation  was  at  its  worst  that  the  old 
"Tiger"  [Clemenceau]  took  charge.  He  handled  trea- 
son and  defeatism  by  means  of  prison  and  a  firing  squad. 
— Baltimore  Evening  Sun,  Nov.  13, 1918. 

DEGOMMER 

The  crop  of  new  words  from  the  present  war  has  nat- 
urally not  been  fully  garnered.     The  Times  (London) 

•See  camouflage. 

53 


54  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

mentions  boche,  degommer,  and  liaison.  "Degommer," 
it  says,  "which  properly  means  to  'take  the  gum  out  of,' 
as  applied  to  silks  and  other  stuffs,  has  come  in  popular 
language  to  signify  'dismiss  from  a  post,'  and  in  this 
sense  it  has  been  largely  adopted  in  the  British 
trenches." — Literary  Digest,  May  8,  1915. 

DEHYDRATION 

"Dehydration"  is  a  new  word  for  an  old  idea.  The 
drying  of  fruits  in  the  sun  is  an  old  domestic  industry 
in  this  country,  while  in  California,  with  its  long  rainless 
season,  it  assumed  commercial  proportions  decades 
ago.  .  .  .  The  term  "dehydration,"  which  now 
figures  so  often  in  the  public  prints,  has  reference  to 
more  or  less  elaborate  processes  of  indoor  drying  as 
distinguished  from  the  old-fashioned  practice  of  drying 
in  the  sun. — American  Review  of  Reviews,  Dec,  1918. 

d£m£tallisation 

Quo!  qu'il  en  soit  la  premiere  tache  qui  va  s'imposer, 
a  quelque  &chelle  qu'on  opere,  sera — excusez  un  neolo- 
gisme  dont  j'ai  le  droit  de  revendiquer  le  parrainage — 
la  demStallisation  du  sol,  litteralement  farci  d'eclats  de 
projectiles. — M.  Emile  Gautier,  Nouvelles  de  France, 
Paris,  Nov.  7,  1918. 

DEPTH  BOMB 

The  depth  bombs,  variously  known  as  depth  charges 
or  water  bombsj  are  designed  to  be  dropped  over  the 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

stern  of  a  ship  or  thrown  in  pairs  simultaneously  to  a 
distance  on  either  side  of  the  vessel  by  means  of  a 
specially  designed  depth  bomb  thrower  known  as  a 
"Y"  gun. — Commander  C.  C.  Gill,  Naval  Power  in 
the  War  (1914-1918). 

DETRUCKED 

"They've  detrucked"  was  the  first  of  the  messages  to 
come  in.  That  is  one  of  war's  new  words.  The  men 
who  were  to  fight  had  been  brought  up  to  a  point  near 
the  jumping-off  place  in  camions. — Herbert  Corey, 
Everybody's  Magazine,  Nov.,  1918. 

DEVIL  DOGS 

The  marines  had  sworn  they  would  not  yield  an  inch 
of  ground,  and  they  swung  into  battle  with  their  hel- 
mets decked  with  poppies.  "Wild  cats"  and  "human 
cyclones"  other  enemies  had  called  them  in  the  past, 
but  the  Germans  gave  them  a  new  name,  "Teufel 
Hunde,"  and  "Devil  Dogs"  they  proved  to  be. — 
Stories  of  Americans  in  the  World  War  (1918),  p.  17. 

DIDONK 

It  wasn't  to  be  supposed  that  poilu  would  suit  the 
American  as  a  nickname  for  the  French  soldier.  It 
doesn't  have  the  tang  or  the  snap  the  Yankee  requires 
when  he  calls  any  one  "out  of  his  name"  in  a  friendly 
manner.  To  the  Americans  the  poilu  has  become  a 
"didonk,"  and  the  term  is  used  quite  affectionately. 


56  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

Explaining  the  origin  of  "didonk"  a  woman  correspon- 
dent of  the  Chicago  Tribune  writes: 

Trust  our  men  to  have  a  phrase  all  of  their  own  for  the 
poilu.  They  call  them  "  didonks  "  with  all  the  affection 
which  an  applied  petit  nom  can  have.  The  derivation 
of  the  word  is  amusing.  All  French  poilus  address  you 
in  the  second  person  singular.  The  camaraderie  of  war 
has  broadened  the  use  of  this  tutoiement  until  only  your 
superior  officer  gets  addressed  as  "you."  And  every 
poilu's  first  phrase,  whether  he  is  asking  you  for  a  drink 
of  red  wine,  or  about  to  grill  you  within  an  inch  of  your 
life  for  having  broken  some  rule,  begins,  "Dis  done  /" — 
the  equivalent  of  our  national  "say." 

Hence  the  nickname. — Literary  Digest,  May  25,  1918. 

DIGGER* 

Time  and  again  those  fellows  [Australians]  would  go 
over  the  top  with  us.  And  when  we  called  them  diggers 
to  their  faces  they'd  have  gone  sheer  to — oh,  almost 
any  place  for  us.  It  was  a  term  of  comradeship  to 
them.  Sort  of  made  them  pals  with  us. — Capt.  Ed- 
ward M.  Kent,  New  York  Times,  Feb.  23,  1919. 

DIXIE 

We  had  no  more  than  arrived  in  the  line  than  the  cook 
of  the  first  gun  crew  we  struck  brought  out  a  "dixie" 
of  tea  and  an  unlimited  supply  of  bread  and  butter  and 
jam  and  invited  us  to  fill  up.     "Dixie"  is  the  soldier's 

*Se«  Aussie. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  57 

name  for  the  camp  kettle  used  in  the  British  army. — 
Captain  Herbert  W.  McBride,  The  Emma  Gees 
(1918). 

DO  A  BUNK 

"One  of  our  decoys  was  sunk,"  said  Capt.  Porterfield 
as  he  scratched  his  head.  "Rotten  shame  it  was,  too, 
but  they  never  got  near  me.  When  I  located  them  and 
gave  the  proper  directions,  I  put  about  and  did  a  bunk." 
"You  did  a  what?" 

"  Did  a  bunk.  Sloped  off;  beat  it  while  the  beating  was 
good,"  replied  the  skipper,  smiling. — New  York  Sun, 
Dec.  18,  1918. 

DOG  ROBBER 

I  said  it  was  a  big  happy  family,  and  so  it  is,  but  as  in 
all  happy  families,  there  are  servants,  so  in  the  British 
Army  there  are  also  servants,  officers'  servants,  or 
"O.  S.,"  as  they  are  termed.  In  the  American  Army 
the  common  name  for  them  is  "dog  robbers." — Arthur 
Guy  Empey,  Over  the  Top  (1917). 

"Listen,  Sergeant,  I'll  tuck  you  into  your  beds  if  you 
want  me  to.     I've  a  rotten  voice,  but  I'll  sing  hymns 
if  anybody  asks  me  to.     It's  up  to  you  fellows  to  use 
me  for  anything  you  want  to.     That's  my  job." 
"Huh,  sort  of  dog  robber  for  the  outfit,  eh?" 
"Exactly  that,"  said  Blue,  and  he  grinned. 
Now  a  dog  robber  is  not  an  important  person  in  our 
Army,  nor  is  he  especially  popular.     He  is  the  striker — 


58.  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

the  personal  attendant  of  an  officer — and  it  is  looked 
at  by  the  men  as  a  soft  job  and  something  of  an  un- 
dignified job. — Clarence  B.  Kelland,  American  Boy, 
February,  1919. 

DOUGHBOY 

Naut.  and  Colonial.    A  boiled  flour  dumpling. 

1685  Ringrose  Bucaniers  Amer.  II.  IV.  4.  These  men 
.  .  .  had  each  of  them  three  or  four  Cakes  of  bread 
(called  by  the  English  Doughboy's)  for  their  provision 
and  Victuals.  1697  Dampier  Voy.  (1729)  I.  V.  110. 
This  Oil  served  instead  of  Butter,  to  eat  with  Dough- 
boys or  Dumplings.  1880  BlacJcw.  Mag.  Jan.  72. 
Quite  a  gourmet  in  the  matter  of  doughboys  and  duff. 
1887  Pall  Mall  Budget  22  Aug.  13-2.  Each  man  had 
also  a  dough-boy  made  with  \  lb.  of  flour  and  boiled  in 
the  soup. — The  Oxford  Dictionary  (1897),  complete 
entry  under  doughboy. 

I  have  been  greatly  interested  in  the  letters  recently 
published  on  your  editorial  page  regarding  the  word 
"doughboys,"  which  is  now  universally  used  by  ini- 
tiated persons  in  referring  to  our  soldiers  in  France. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  term  "doughboy"  is  more 
popular  with  our  fighters  in  khaki  than  any  other  ex- 
pression that  has  so  far  been  minted.  Real  soldiers  are 
proud  to  be  called  "doughboys." 

I  spent  several  months  in  France  as  a  war  correspondent 
for  a  New  York  newspaper,  and  interviewed  scores  of 
officers  and  privates  on  the  subject  of  a  fitting  name  for 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  59 

our  troops  in  France.  They  were  all  unanimously  in 
favour  of  "doughboy"  and  equally  unanimous  in  their 
loathing  of  "Sammy,"  which  they  regarded  as  "lady- 
like." In  an  article  of  mine  that  was  published  several 
weeks  ago  I  wrote: 

"  Up  to  this  time  our  troops  in  France  have  either  been 
referred  to  as  'Sammies'  or  merely  as  doughboys. 
This  latter  expression  was  formerly  used  as  two  words 
— dough  boy — and  had  long  been  known  among  sol- 
diers in  the  Regular  Army.  However,  it  was  a  term 
that  was  only  applied  to  infantrymen  and  could  not, 
therefore,  fit  the  army  as  a  whole,  although  it  is  now 
being  used  to  designate  any  sort  of  American  soldier. 
Its  origin  is  shrouded  in  mystery,  but  there  have  been 
many  explanations — all  different.  It  is  definitely 
known,  however,  that  the  expression  was  in  use  among 
our  soldiers  for  many  years  before  the  first  A.  E.  F. 
came  to  France." — Edwin  Carty  Ranck,  New  York 
Times,  Sept.  28,  1918. 

A  doughboy  is  an  American  soldier,  and  American  sol- 
diers, infantrymen,  artillerymen,  medical  department, 
signal  corps  sharps,  officers  and  men  alike,  all  are  called 
doughboys.  Our  cartoonist  is  one,  so  is  General 
Pershing. 

The  term  "doughboys"*  dates  back  to  the  Civil  War 
when  army  wit  was  aroused  by  large  globular  brass 
buttons  on  infantry  uniforms. 


•Not  the  term  but  perhaps  the  application  of  the  term  to  the  American  soldier. 
The  word  itself  was  in  use,  as  the  citation  from  the  Oxford  Dictionary  shows,  in  1685. 


60  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

Somebody  (he  must  have  been  a  sailor)  dubbed  the 
buttons  "doughboys"  because  they  reminded  him  of 
the  boiled  dumplings  of  raised  dough  served  in  ships' 
messes  and  known  to  all  sailors  as  doughboys. 

Originally  it  referred  only  to  an  enlisted  infantryman, 
but  the  A.  E.  F.  applies  it  to  all  branches  and  all  grades 
of  the  service. — The  Stars  and  Stripes,  Paris,  quoted 
in  Stories  of  Americans  in  the  World  War  (1918),  p.  59. 

DRIFT  METER 

Many  new  instruments  have  been  devised  for  aircraft. 
These  include  .  .  .  drift  meters,  which  indicate 
the  side  slip  of  the  plane  through  the  air. — Problems 
of  Aeroplane  Improvement,  by  Naval  Consulting  Board 
of  the  U.  S.,  August  1,  1918. 

DRIVE 

Drives  will  continue  though  the  war  passes.  The 
force  of  their  successful  example  leads  them  to  be  taken 
over  for  other  purposes,  and  we  hear  of  a  great  drive 
for  funds  for  missionary  work  decided  on  by  the  Prot- 
estant Churches  of  America.  "The  people  of  the 
country,"  says  the  Episcopal  Recorder  (Philadelphia), 
"have  become  familiar  with  'drives,'  and  if  the  welfare 
organizations,  led  by  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  can  raise  two 
hundred  millions,  there  should  be  no  difficulty  in 
accomplishing  this  purpose." — Literary  Digest,  January 
18,  1919. 

Elle  [1'ardeur  guerriere]  est  encore  stimulee  par  les 
"drives"  de  la  Croix-Rouge,  de  1'  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  des 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  61 

Knights  of  Columbus,  de  toutes  les  organisations 
charitables  que  la  guerre  a  fait  naitre. — Emile  Hovela- 
que,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  Feb.  15,  1919. 

DRUM-FIRE 

In  no  previous  war  have  the  reports  from  artillery 
followed  each  other  so  closely  as  to  resemble  the  roll  of  a 
big  drum.  This  phenomenon,  first  called  "drum-fire" 
by  the  Germans,  and  now  generally  known  by  this 
name,  is  analyzed  by  G.  F.  Sleggs  in  the  London  Times. 
Incidentally  he  shows  that  the  sharp,  distinct  report 
necessary  to  its  production  is  heard  only  in  front  of  the 
gun,  so  that  each  side  hears  "drum-fire"  only  from  the 
other's  artillery.  The  further  one  goes  toward  the 
rear  of  his  own  line,  the  more  distinctly  he  hears  the 
enemy's  fire  and  the  louder  it  comes  out  above  the 
muffled  roar  of  his  own  guns.     .     .     . 

"This  term  (Trommelfeuer)"  says  Mr.  Sleggs,  "was 
first  used  by  the  Germans  to  describe  the  effect  of  our 
massed  artillery  on  an  unprecedented  scale  on  the 
Somme." — Literary  Digest,  Oct.  27,  1917. 

DUD 

"Don't  be  a  growler  or  a  sea-lawyer  or  a  drifter  or  a 
dud"  (Superintendent  E.  W.  Eberle).  Incidentally, 
"dud"  is  a  new  word — one  coined  on  the  western  front 
to  designate  a  shell  which  has  failed  to  explode.  But 
the  Superintendent's  own  definition  is  "A  shell  without 
a  bursting  charge,  a  dummy  or  a  blank  or  a  dead  one, 


62  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

having  no  'pep,'  no  'punch,'  no  initiative." — The  Log, 
Sept.  27,  1918.     U.  S.  Naval  Academy,  Annapolis,  Md. 

DUM-DUM  BULLETS 

During  their  advance  the  Americans  had  been  fired  upon 
by  Austrian  machine  guns  using  dum-dum  bullets. 
Major  Somerville  of  Seattle  has  forwarded  a  number 
of  the  bullets  to  the  headquarters  of  the  American 
Military  Mission.  The  bullets  were  manufactured 
two  years  ago,  and  each  cartridge  has  a  steel  jacket 
containing  four  square  slugs. — With  the  Allied  Armies 
in  Venetia,  Nov.  1,  1918  (Associated  Press). 

DUMMY  COMPASS 

For  this  purpose  the  "dummy  compass"  is  employed, 
a  card  upon  which  the  circle  of  the  horizon  is  marked 
off  in  sectors  like  the  pieces  of  a  pie.  It  is  vital  that 
when  a  lookout  sights  a  submarine  he  should  be  able 
to  sing  out  the  position,  so  many  points  off  the  bow  or 
abaft  the  beam,  in  order  that  the  gunners  may  instantly 
operate  the  training-gear  and  waste  no  precious  seconds 
of  time  before  the  spotter  begins  sending  his  ranges. 
—Ralph  D.  Paine,  The  Fighting  Fleets  (1918),  p.  389. 


E 


EAGLE 

The  first  Eagle  was  launched  from  the  Ford  plant  on 
Rouge  River  near  Detroit.  It  is  promised  that  soon 
others  will  follow  and  the  fleet  of  destroyers  material- 
ize. .  .  .  These  boats  are  200  feet  long,  26  feet 
breadth,  18  feet  depth  and  9  feet  draft.  They  are  to 
be  driven  by  turbine  engines  and  are  expected  to  make 
18  nautical  miles  an  hour. — Naval  Institute,  Annapolis, 
September,  1918.     Page  2106. 

EATABLES 

In  France  we  make  no  attempt  to  interfere  with  this; 
we  content  ourselves  with  devising  a  pronounceable 
variation  of  the  existing  name.  For  example,  if  a  road 
is  called  La  Rue  de  Bois,  we  simply  call  it  "Roodiboys," 
and  leave  it  at  that.  On  the  same  principle,  Etaples  is 
modified  to  "Eatables,"  and  Sailly -la-Bourse  to  "Sally 
Booze." — Major  Ian  Hay  Beith,  All  In  It!  K  (1) 
Carries   On    (1917). 

ECOLE  DE  PERFECTIONNEMENT 

Schools  where  the  pilots  are  trained  on  the  modern  ma- 
chines— Scoles  de  perfectionnement  as  they  are  called — 


64  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

are  usually  an  annex  to  the  centres  where  the  soldiers 
are  taught  to  fly,  though  there  are  one  or  two  camps 
that  are  devoted  exclusively  to  giving  advanced  in- 
struction to  aviators  who  are  to  fly  the  avions  de  chasse, 
or  fighting  machines. — James  R.  McConnell,  Flying 
for  France  (1916). 

EGG 

See  ash-can. 

ELPASOITIS 

Like  other  nervous  disorders,  Elpasoitis  may  pass  from 
a  comparatively  harmless  stage  into  a  dangerous  con- 
dition; dangerous,  that  is,  for  the  innocent  bystander. 
At  Chifu,  on  the  edge  of  a  Russo-Japanese  war,  its 
illusions  were  on  the  whole  amusing.  Whatever  the 
lies  that  came  out  of  Port  Arthur  in  a  junk  they  carried 
no  menace  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  But  El  Paso  is 
always  an  irritant,  and  may  conceivably  become  a 
source  of  general  infection.  El  Paso's  self-induced 
agues  and  chills  take  on  body  as  they  spread  over  the 
wires.  From  such  a  consummation  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
both  the  United  States  and  Mexico  may  be  spared. — 
New  York  Evening  Post,  March  24,  1916. 

EMBUSQUE 

But  the  words  which  have  created  a  whole  literature  in 
the  trench  journals  and  in  the  Parisian  papers  are  per- 
mission, embusque",  and  marraine.  .  .  New  slang, 
too,  since  the  war,  is  the  word  embusqaS,  which  means 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  65 

one  who,  through  cowardice  or  selfishness,  plus  in- 
fluence, stays  at  home,  or  obtains  some  situation  in  the 
army  far  from  the  front.  It  is  a  term  of  opprobrium 
worse  even  than  Bosche. — Gelett  Burgess,  Century 
Magazine,  Sept.,  1916. 

The  more  I  saw  the  splendour  of  the  fight  the  French 
were  fighting,  the  more  I  felt  like  an  embusque — what 
the  British  call  a  "shirker."  So  I  made  up  my  mind 
to  go  into  aviation. — James  R.  McConnell,  Flying 
for  France  (1916). 

Among  these  men  there  were  some,  no  doubt,  who  be- 
long to  the  class  called  by  the  French  "embusques." 
Through  scheming  or  influence  they  managed  to  secure 
for  themselves,  and  to  remain  in,  "shell-proof"  posi- 
tions.— New  York  Times,  Nov.  28,  1918. 

EMMA  GEE 

I  verily  believe  that  that  battalion,  and  especially  the 
"Emma  Gees,"  was  about  the  toughest  lot  of  soldiers 
who  ever  went  to  war.  Emma  Gee  is  signaler's  lingo 
for  M.  G.,  meaning  machine  gunner. — Captain  Her- 
bert W.  McBride,  The  Emma  Gees  (1918)  .* 

What  is  patter  than  "Emma  Gee"  for  a  machine  gun, 
for  instance?  Or  "O  pip"  for  an  observation  post? 
One  must  admit  that  there's  some  class  to  these  terms, 
and  while  you've  got  your  goggles  on  this  column  just 
take  it  from  me  that  there's  more  "pep"  of  the  same 

*The  following  "new  names  for  old  letters,"  says  Captain  McBride,  are  officially 
recognized  in  the  signaling  code:  A  =  ack;  B  =  beer;  D=don;  M=emma;  P=pip; 
S= esses;  T=tock;  V  =  vick;  Z=zed. 


66  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

mustardy  standard  where  this  came  from. — William 
Philip  Simms,  Baltimore  Star  June  22,  1917. 

ESCADRILLE 

Trips  are  made  in  squadron  formation  and  sham  battles 
are  effected  with  other  escadrilles  as  the  smallest  unit 
of  an  aerial  fleet  is  called. — James  R.  McConnell, 
Flying  for  France  (1916). 

EVACUATE 

Private  William  A.  Anderson,  Co.  B,  131st  Infantry. — 
For  extraordinary  heroism  in  action  at  Chipilly  Ridge 
on  Aug.  9.  He  rendered  service  as  stretcher  bearer 
under  heavy  shellfire,  continuing  on  duty  for  forty- 
eight  hours  until  complete  exhaustion  compelled  him  to 
be  evacuated. 

Colonel  Hamvel  V.  Ham,  109th  Infantry. — For  ex- 
traordinary heroism  in  action  near  Magneux,  on  Sept. 
6.  Having  been  severely  wounded  and  unable  to  move, 
he  remained  for  ten  hours  on  the  field  of  battle,  directing 
the  attack,  and  refused  to  be  evacuated  or  receive  medi- 
cal attention  until  his  men  had  been  cared  for. 

First  Lieutenant  Lewis  B.  Cox,  6th  Infantry. — For 
extraordinary  heroism  in  action  during  the  St.  Mihiel 
offensive,  between  Sept.  12  and  15.  From  the  begin- 
ning of  the  battle  till  evacuated  from  the  field  severely 
wounded  he  displayed  exceptional  heroism,  bravery, 
and  devotion  to  duty  of  the  highest  order. — General 
Pershing  in  awarding  the  Distinguished  Service  Cross. 


FABRICATED  SHIP 

What  is  a  "Fabricated"  Ship?  Are  not  all  ships  fabri- 
cated ?  Doubtless ;  but  the  word  as  used  recently  in  this 
phrase  is  a  technical  term.  Fabricated  ships  are,  or 
maj7-  be,  made  in  great  numbers  with  interchangeable 
parts,  and  are  related  to  ships  built  in  the  ordinary  way 
much  as  an  Elgin  or  a  Waltham  watch  movement  is  to 
one  turned  out  by  a  Swiss  maker. — Literary  Digest, 
Dec.  29, 1917. 

Recently  the  term  "fabricated  ships"  has  become  one 
of  public  interest.  A  fabricated  ship  may  be  defined, 
briefly,  as  a  ship  on  which  the  work  of  punching  and 
shaping  the  plates  and,  to  some  extent,  assembling  and 
riveting,  is  done  in  a  fabricating  shop,  ordinarily  em- 
ployed for  bridge  or  tank  work,  as  distinguished  from 
the  usual  practice  of  doing  it  in  a  shipyard  punch  shop. 
— Shipping,  Nov.  24, 1917. 

So  far  as  the  writer  knows,  the  fabricated  ship  is  a 
product  of  American  progressiveness. — Marine  En- 
gineering, Dec,  1917. 

FAG 

During  this  time  we  had  two  ten-minute  breaks  for 
rest,  and  no  sooner  the  word,  "Fall  out  for  ten  minutes," 

67 


68  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

was  given,  than  each  Tommy  got  out  a  fag  and  lighted 
it.  .  .  Tommy  is  a  great  cigarette  smoker. — Arthur 
Guy  Empey,  Over  the  Top  (1917). 

FARMERETTE 

Perhaps  the  greatest  joy  in  the  work  lies  in  the  health 
and  vigour  of  it  and  in  the  peaceful  sense  of  repose  that 
comes  when  it  is  done.  Moreover,  a  farmerette  can 
always  watch  the  fruition  of  her  labour.  Ten  rows 
planted,  six  rows  hoed,  four  rows  dug  and  harvested. 
The  accomplishment  is  definite  and  can  be  measured. 
The  farmerettes  are  producing  food  which  creates  the 
bodies  and  minds  of  mankind  and  sustains  them,  world 
without  end. — Mrs.  Marguerite  Wilkinson,  In- 
dependent, Sept.  14,  1918. 

FEATHER 

However,  if  the  submarine  is  moving  beneath  the  water, 
with  periscope  up,  the  protruding  periscope  leaves  a 
wake  which  is  known  navally  as  the  "feather,"  and  the 
feather  is  often  discernible  when  the  periscope  is  not. — 
Samuel  G.  Blythe,  Saturday  Evening  Post,  Oct.  12, 
1918. 

FEENEESH 
Seefineesh. 

FERVENTS  D'AVIATION 

There  are  those  among  us  whom  the  French  call  grace- 
fully the  fervents  d' aviation,  who  believe  that  the  Golden 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  69 

Age  of  flying  is  to  come  immediately  on  the  declara- 
tion of  peace. — C.  G.  Grey,  Illustrated  London  News, 
October  5,  1918. 

FIFTY-FIFTY 

Any  American  citizen  who  thus  feels  should  be  sent 
straight  back  to  Germany,  where  he  belongs.  We  can 
have  no  "fifty-fifty"  allegiance  in  this  country. 
Either  a  man  is  an  American  and  nothing  else,  or  he  is 
not  an  American  at  all. — Theodore  Roosevelt,  The 
Foes  of  Our  Own  Household  (1917),  p.  62. 

These  young  French  women  make  excellent  helpmates. 
In  France  it  has  been  the  custom  of  generations  for  the 
wife  to  be  in  reality  a  fifty-fifty  partner  with  her  hus- 
band. She  not  only  does  the  woman's  part  in  the 
domestic  machinery  but  she  takes  a  lively  and  active 
interest  in  all  his  business  undertakings. — Washington 
Post,  March  31,  1919. 

FILLEUL* 

General  Pershing  has  put  a  ban  on  romance  by  urging 
the  soldiers'  Godmothers'  League  to  cease  its  organized 
attempt  to  introduce  into  the  American  army  the  insti- 
tution of  Filleul  and  Marraine. — Nation,  Jan.  3,  1918. 

FINEESH,  FEENEESH 

But  without  question  the  most  useful  word  in  France 
to-day  is  one  called  "fineesh!"     It  is  a  combination  of 

•See  marraint. 


70  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

finis  and  finish.  Literally  it  means  all  gone.  If  you 
ask  for  jam  and  there  is  no  jam,  the  jam  is  fin-eesh. 
If  you  get  to  a  station  too  late  to  catch  your  train,  the 
train  is  fin-eesh.  In  a  country  where  the  unexpected 
is  to  be  expected,  it  fits  a  limitless  number  of  occasions. 
It  has  met  the  situation.  It  is  as  useful  as  "C'est  la 
guerre!" — Roy  S.  Duestine,  Scribner's  Monthly, 
November,  1918,  p.  558. 

"Na  pu,  feeneesh,  Monsieur.  Journaux  anglais  na  pu. 
Tomoro,  sans  faute,  Monsieur.  Voulez-vous  francais? 
Le  Matin?  Bon.  Au  revoir,  Monsieur."  And  the 
French  newsboy  is  gone,  sold  out  as  usual. — Punch, 
London,  July  12,  1916. 

FIRST  LUFF 

In  the  language  of  the  "gob"  the  Commanding  Officer 
is  the  "Skipper";  his  Executive  Officer  is  the  "First 
Luff."— Oscillator,  Cambridge,  Mass.,   Feb.  22,  1919. 

FIRST  TO  FIGHT 

Everybody  knows  how  well  the  Marines  have  been 
advertised.  Their  slogan,  "First  to  Fight,"  has 
drawn  thousands  of  the  best  men  of  the  nation  into  that 
branch  of  the  service — men  who  would  have  gone  to 
any  other  branch  without  much  consideration,  save 
for  the  fact  that  the  fighting  reputation  of  the  Marines 
has  been  constantly  harped  upon  and  constantly  lived 
up  to  by  that  organization.  It  would  be  an  unpardon- 
able sin  for  one  member  of  the  Marines  to  cause  by  his 
actions  any  one  to  doubt  their  courage  and  daring. — 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  71 

Vincent  de  P.  Fitzpatrick,  Baltimore  Sun,  Oct.  27, 
1918. 

FISH 

See  look-sea. 

FIX 

Generally  speaking — and  all  speaking  about  this  phase 
of  it  must  be  very  general — the  object  of  the  chase  of  a 
chaser  or  a  flock  of  them  is  to  get  what  is  called  a  "fix." 
That  is,  they  go  out  and  patrol  in  a  specified  area  for  the 
purpose  of  locating  submarines.  Now  the  manner  of 
getting  a  fix  is  extremely  interesting  and  quite  efficient. 
Also,  it  is  not  for  discussion  here.  It  is  sufficient  to 
say  that  the  completed  "fix"  locates  the  submarines 
with  reasonable  accuracy — that  is,  determines  the  place 
beneath  the  water  where  the  submarine  is  lurking,  of  the 
route  on  which  it  is  proceeding.  When  the  fix  is  de- 
termined the  chasers  go  to  it  with  all  speed,  and  it  begins 
to  rain  depth  charges  on  Fritz. — Samuel  G.  Blythe, 
Saturday  Evening  Post,  Oct.  19,  1918. 

FIXATION  PROCESSES 

The  specific  task  to  which  the  chemist  and  physicist 
addressed  themselves  was  that  of  finding  some  way  in 
which  this  great  reservoir  of  inert  nitrogen  gas  about 
us  could  be  tapped  to  obtain  these  active  nitrogen  atoms 
which,  combined  with  oxygen  and  hydrogen  atoms, 
make  up  nitric  acid,  or,  combined  with  hydrogen  alone, 
constitute  ammonia.  The  various  procedures  which 
have  been  worked  out  to  accomplish  this  end  are  col- 


72  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

lectively  known  as  "fixation  processes,"  and  the  ex- 
pression "fixation  of  atmospheric  nitrogen"  has  found 
its  way  frequently  into  everyday  print.  The  details 
of  these  processes  do  not  lend  themselves  to  description 
in  non-technical  terms,  but  they  may  be  understood  in 
outline. — Henry  P.  Talbot,  Atlantic  Monthly,  Novem- 
ber, 1918. 

FLIGHT  SURGEON 

Flight  surgeons  represent  a  new  war  type  which  appeals 
to  the  imagination  as  does  no  other  kind  of  medical 
man.  Up  to  this  time  not  much  has  been  told  about 
them.  The  evolution  of  the  army  medical  officer  to  the 
flight  surgeon  has  been  rapid.  It  is  only  a  short  time 
ago  that  the  term  was  first  heard,  but  already  a  special 
flying  machine  has  been  devised  for  the  flight  surgeon 
— a  flying  ambulance — so  he  may  aid  injured  airmen. 
—New  York  Times,  Sept.  22, 1918. 

FLIVVER 

There  was  another  young  officer — Chisholm  call  him — 
who  played  poker  occasionally.  He  commanded  a 
flivver,  which  is  the  service  name  for  the  smaller  class  of 
destroyers,  the  750-ton  ones.  In  our  navy  there  are 
plenty  of  your  officers  who  will  tell  you  that  they  never 
built  destroyers  which  keep  the  sea  better  than  that 
same  little  flivver  class.  Young  Captain  Chisholm 
on  the  323  was  one. — James  B.  Connolly,  The  U-Boat 
Hunters  (1918). 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  73 

FLU 

Why  does  the  influenza  take  the  young  and  the  strong 
and  let  the  old  go  free?  Is  it  because  the  old  soon  will 
die  in  any  case?  And  why  and  how  has  this  influenza 
gone  over  the  world? 

Governor  Riggs,  of  Alaska,  says  that  all  the  Eskimos 
round  Nome  City  are  dead  of  the  "flu."  Why? — 
Saturday  Evening  Post,  March  1,  1919. 

FLYABOUT 

Now  that  the  stress  of  wartime  production  is  over,  this 
particular  concern  is  offering  flying  boats,  seaplanes, 
and  chummy  flyabouts  for  commercial  or  pleasure  pur- 
poses. "An  appropriate  Christmas  gift  for  your  son  or 
daughter,"  is  the  concluding  sentence.  We  have 
passed  from  the  best-girl  buggy  to  the  chummy  road- 
ster, and  it  is  only  a  step  further  to  the  chummy  fly- 
about. — Indianapolis  News,  Jan.,  1919. 

FOKKER 

For  several  months  last  year  the  supremacy  of  the  air 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  Germans  by  reason  of  their 
Fokkers.  These  were  monoplanes  with  a  wing  spread 
slightly  under  forty  feet,  fitted  with  only  an  80-100 
horsepower  rotary  engine. — Bertram  W.  Williams, 
Scientific  American,  Oct.  6, 1917. 


74  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

FOX  TROT 

In  a  late  edition  of  your  Review  Mr.  Walter  Winans 
gives  the  origin  of  the  name  "fox  trot"  as  derived 
from  that  of  the  "pace"  of  a  horse,  and  that  the  dance 
known  as  "Fox  trot"  is  derived  from  that  movement. 
I  am  sorry  to  have  to  disagree  with  that  statement. 
The  facts  are  that  the  dance  was  invented  early  in 
1914  by  a  New  York  vaudeville  dancer  named  Mr.  Fox, 
and  the  selection  of  the  steps  was  arranged  by  him  quite 
independently  of  anything  zoological. — Charles  d'Al- 
bert,  Saturday  Review,  London,  Dec.  11,  1915. 

FOYER  DES  ALLIEES 

Such  also  is  the  "Foyer  des  Alliees,'*  which  the  young 
women  of  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  have  established  for  our  em- 
ployees and  ammunition  workers,  with  the  intimate 
and  constant  support  of  some  devoted  Frenchwomen 
and  of  some  leaders  of  industry. — Gustave  Rodriguez, 
Scribner's  Magazine,  Nov.,  1918,  p.  555. 

For  the  women  munition  workers  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  has 
founded  the  Foyers  des  Alliees  in  a  score  of  places,  and 
the  Frenchwomen  are  flocking  to  them  with  unbounded 
gratitude,  happy  beyond  expression  because  of  the 
new  comradeship. — Joseph  H.  Odell,  Atlantic  Monthly, 
November,  1918. 

FOYER  DU  SOLDAT 

If  one  wants  to  know  all  the  things  that  a  man  in  a 
Foyer  du  Soldat  (as  the  American  Y.  M.  C.  A.  serving 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  75 

the  French  is  called)  does,  the  answer  can  be  found  in 
the  dictionary — by  looking  up  all  the  verbs. — J.  M. 
Moore,  Christian  Observer,  Oct.  23,  1918,  p.  16. 

L'Union  franco-americaine  des  foyers  du  soldat  inaugu- 
rait  il  y  a  quelques  jours,  au  camp  4e  Cercottes,  le 
1.000"  foyer  du  soldat  installe  par  ses  soins. — Nouvelles 
de  France,  Oct.  3,  1918. 

FRIGHTFULNESS* 

One  stands  in  awe  of  such  completeness  of  savagery; 
one  begins  to  understand  what  is  meant  by  the  term 
"f rightfulness."  As  far  as  eye  can  reach  there  is 
nothing  to  be  seen  but  decayed  fangs,  protruding  from 
a  swamp  of  filth,  covered  with  a  green  slime  where  water 
has  accumulated.  This  is  not  the  unavoidable  ruin 
of  shell-fire.  No  battle  was  fought  here.  The  demoli- 
tion was  the  wanton  spite  of  an  enemy  who,  because 
he  could  not  hold  the  place,  was  determined  to  leave 
nothing  serviceable  behind. — Coningsby  Dawson,  Out 
to  Win  (1918). 

The  German  doctrine  of  Rightfulness  was  based  upon 
the  Roman  tyrant's  maxim,  "let  me  be  hated  so  long  as 
I  am  feared."  The  German  Kaiser  and  his  people  now 
find  themselves  hated  and  laughed  at,  which  is  un- 
pleasant.— Saturday  Review,  London,  Oct.  26,  1918. 

FRITZ 

See  Jerry. 

*Sec  SchrecklichkeU. 


76  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

FUNKED 

The  New  York  Globe  is  impressed  by  some  of  the  in- 
scriptions scribbled  by  soldiers  on  the  little  wooden 
crosses  that  mark  the  graves  of  other  soldiers,  which 
a  Canadian  officer  has  brought  from  over  there.     .     . 
And  another,  markedly  different  in  sentiment,  reads: 

Churchill  funked  it — he  lies  at  rest; 
Nobody  grieved  when  he  went  west; 
Whence  he  came  or  where  he  goes 
Nobody  cares,  nobody  knows. 


"All  over  France  are  little  wooden  crosses  raised  for 
unknown  soldiers  and  simple  verses  scribbled  by  un- 
known rimesters.  And  the  soldiers  who  lie  under  the 
little  wooden  crosses — with  the  few  exceptions  who 
funked,  like  Churchill — and  the  soldiers  who,  with 
gaiety,  pencilled  the  little  epitaphs  upon  the  wood — 
all  are  heroes." — Literary  Digest,  Oct.  19,  1918. 

FUNK  HOLE 

Tommy's  term  for  a  dugout.  A  favourite  spot  for  those 
of  a  nervous  disposition. — Arthur  Guy  Empey,  Over 
the  Top  (1917). 

"Hungry?  I'm  so  gol-darn  hungry  I  could  eat  a  boche ! " 
grumbled  Corporal  Jack  Evans  as  he  huddled  in  a  funk 
hole  beyond  the  Vesle. — Peter  Clark  Macfarlane, 
Saturday  Evening  Post,  Jan.  18,  1919. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  77 

FUNKY  VILLAS 

These  men  were  not  romantic  fellows,  like  Greek 
heroes.  They  were  bootmakers  from  Leicester  and 
lacemakers  from  Nottingham  and  potters  from  Arnold 
Bennett's  five  towns,  where  life  is  rather  drab  and  its 
colour  is  monotone.  I  met  them  several  years  ago  near 
Armentieres  and  afterward  at  "Funky  Villas,"  as  they 
call  Fonquevillers,  near  Hebuterne. — Philip  Gibbs, 
New  York  Times,  Oct.  4,  1918. 

FUTURISM 

Futurism,  which  is  nearly  related  to  Cubism,  again, 
rests  upon  a  theory  of  knowledge  and  reality.  The 
doctrine  is  Heraclitan.  Everything  is  a  flux;  nothing 
stops  for  a  moment.  Everything  moves,  and  the  artist 
with  it.  His  task  is  merely  to  make  the  flux  visible. 
Practically,  the  pictures  are  like  selected  fragments 
of  many  objects  shaken  in  the  kaleidoscope.  A  night 
out  would  be  represented  by  the  wheels  of  the  cab 
and  the  horse's  ears,  the  penumbra  of  the  street  lamp, 
and  the  slipper  of  the  danseuse,  a  musical  phase  from 
the  orchestra,  and  the  cork  of  the  champagne  bottle. — 
Frank  Jewett  Mather,  Jr.,  Nation,  Feb.  3,  1916. 


G 


GADARENING 

We  are,  I  believe,  awakening  to  the  dangers  of  this 
"Gadarening,"  this  rushing  down  the  high  cliff  into 
the  sea,  possessed  and  pursued  by  the  devils  of — 
machinery. — John  Galsworthy,  Another  Sheaf  (1919). 

GADGET 

"Well,  he's  had  a  lot  of  it — Philippines,  Boxer  Re- 
bellion, Vera  Cruz,  and  Hayti.  You  know,  in  the 
Marines,  when  we  can't  think  of  the  generic  name  for 
anything,  we  call  it  a  'gadget'  or  a  'gilguy.'  Now,  this 
man  has  won  a  Congressional  Medal  and  has  another 
coming.  When  we  sighted  the  French  coast,  I  was 
standing  where  he  couldn't  see  me,  just  behind  him; 
and  I  heard  him  say,  while  he  looked  over  things  in 
general : 

"  'I  got  one  o'  them  gadgets  now  an'  one  on  its  way.  I 
wonder  if  I'll  get  another  over  here.' " — R.  G.  Kauff- 
man,  Our  Navy  at  Work  (1918),  p.  194. 

GARS 

Balsley  bore  up  bravely,  and  became  the  favourite 
of  the  wounded  officers  in  whose  ward  he  lay.    When 

78 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  79 

we  flew  over  to  see  him  they  would  say:  II  est  un  brave 
petit  gars,  Vaviateur  amSricain  [He's  a  brave  little  fellow, 
the  American  aviator]. — James  R.  McConnell,  Flying 
for  France  (1916). 

GAS-MASK 

The  army  gas-mask  is  by  no  means  the  protective  appli- 
ance that  it  is  popularly  believed  to  be.  It  does  not 
afford  universal  protection  against  all  gases,  nor  can 
it  ever  be  used  safely  in  low  oxygen  atmospheres.  It 
furnishes  no  oxygen  to  the  wearer  and  can  only  remove 
comparatively  small  percentages  of  poisonous  gas  from 
inhaled  air,  usually  less  than  1  or  2  per  cent. — U.  S. 
Bureau  of  Mines,  Pittsburg  Experiment  Station,  Feb. 
11,  1919. 

GET  IT 

With  the  American  Army  in  France,  August  31. — (By 
mail) — "Got  it"  is  the  only  way  doughboys  ever  refer 
to  being  killed  in  battle.  One  never  hears  them  men- 
tion the  words  "dead"  or  "killed."  And  to  express 
the  fact  of  being  wounded  they  invariably  say  "hit," 
qualifying  it  as  "bad"  or  "not  much." 

"Where  is  old  Buck?  "  a  doughboy  will  ask  his  "buddy" 

after  he  has  been  away  at  a  hospital  or  on  leave. 

"Oh,  he  got  it  when  we  came  through  that  third  town 

back  there,"  his  "buddy"  replies. 

"Well,  where's  old  Steve?" 

"Why,  he  got  hit  when  we  was  crossing  the  Ork." 


80  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

"Was  he  hit  bad?" 

"No,  not  much;  the  arm — but  he  won't  lose  it.    Back 

in  a  couple  of  weeks." 

"Any  others  that  I  know  get  it?" 

"  Oh,  I  guess  a  couple  of  lads  you  know  got  it,  but  most 

of  them  only  got  hit." 

"Most  of  them  hit  bad?" 

"No,   not  much — most   of   them." — Baltimore   Star, 

Sept.  19,  1918. 


See  gadget. 


GILGUY 


GIMPER 


"A  gimper  is  a  bird  who  would  stick  by  you  through 
anything.  If  you  were  up  in  the  air  and  ran  into  a 
dozen  Boches  and  were  getting  the  worst  of  it,  perhaps, 
and  the  fellow  with  you  stuck  with  you  and  gave  it  to 
them  until  the  Heinies  went  back  into  Hunland,  you'd 
know  he  was  a  gimper. 

"If  he  didn't  have  motor  trouble,  and  his  gun  didn't 
jam,  or  he  didn't  accept  any  one  of  a  dozen  good  excuses 
for  zooming  off  home  and  leaving  you  to  do  the  same  if 
you  could  get  away,  he'd  be  a  gimper  all  right.  A  gim- 
per is  a  scout  who  does  everything  just  a  little  better 
than  he  has  to. 

"We  call  this  the  Gimper  Squadron,  because  every  man 
has  to  prove  himself  a  gimper  by  his  actions."— 
Lieut.  Eddie  Rickenbacker,  New  York  Evening  Sun, 
Aug.,  1918. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  81 

GIN 

Paris,  Sept.  5. — Devilish  inventions,  everyone  a  hidden 
engine  of  death  and  typical  of  Hun  frightfulness,  are 
left  behind  by  the  Germans  every  time  they  retreat. 
Traps  and  snares  are  everywhere  as  the  Americans  and 
their  Allies  penetrate  the  German  lines. 
Commonest  is  the  "gin,"  a  board  set  horizontally  at 
the  entrance  to  the  dugout  and  having  the  appearance 
of  a  seat.  But  the  moment  one  sits  down  the  board 
yields  a  fraction  of  an  inch,  just  enough  for  a  nail, 
hidden  at  the  other  end,  to  scratch  a  charge  of  explosives 
and  set  it  off. — Edward  M.  Thierry,  Baltimore  Even- 
ing Sun,  Sept.  26,  1918. 

GLISSADE 

See  chandelle. 

GNIOLE 

More  difficult  is  the  case  of  gniole,  brandy — the  correct 
spelling,  according  to  Mr.  Dauzat,  is  niole — which  is 
only  less  common  than  pinard  in  proportion  as  the 
occasion  for  its  employment  is  less  frequent.  Gniole 
was  also  unknown  in  Paris  before  the  war.  It  is  a 
Lyons  word  of  at  least  fifty  years'  standing,  and  is 
apparently  derived  through  the  Savoy  patois  niola 
from  nebula  by*  a  neat  interchange  of  cause  and  effect. — ■ 
London  Times,  review  of  Dauzat's  L 'Argot  de  la  Guerre 
(1918). 


82  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 


GOB 

Sir:  In  answer  to  your  article  in  the  Tribune  of  this 
date,  "Why  Is  a  Gob?"  The  name  "gob,"  which  has 
been  applied  to  the  American  sailorman  for  so  many 
years,  it  is  believed  originated  from  the  Chinese  word 
"gobshite,"  and  was  first  used  on  the  American  Naval 
Asiatic  Station. 

Have  no  information  as  to  just  why  the  name  became 
applicable  to  the  American  Navy  and  to  no  other,  but 
recent  conversation  with  some  of  the  "old  salts"  leads 
me  to  think  that  this  was  the  true  origin  of  the  word. 

I  do  know  that  the  American  man-o'-warsman  prefers 
the  name  of  "gob"  to  that  of  "Jackie."  L.  C.  B., 

Receiving  Ship  at  New  York,  Jan.  13,  1919. — New 
York  Tribune,  Jan.  16,  1919. 

A  gob  is  a  sailor,  a  man  of  the  American  Navy,  a  blue- 
jacket, and  the  term  is  self -applied.  It  is  the  generic 
term  for  all  men  in  the  service,  up  to  those  who  wear  the 
gold  on  their  sleeves ;  and  even  so,  the  sailors  often  speak 
of  the  austere  commanding  officer  as  the  Main  Gob. 
The  use  of  it  primarily  is  to  show  the  sailor's  detestation 
for  the  usual  designation  of  them — jackies.  Nothing 
rouses  the  ire  of  a  sailor  so  quickly  as  to  call  him  a 
jackie.  He  doesn't  like  it,  and  will  not  have  it.  No 
diminutive,  as  expressed  by  the  "ie,"  for  him.  It 
doesn't  fit  cither  with  his  own  assumption  of  his  man- 
liness or  with  the  fact  of  that  manliness.     .     .     . 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  83 

So  far  as  I  could  learn,  the  designation  of  gob  by  the 
sailors  for  themselves  has  been  prevalent  for  the  past 
five  or  six  years.  Before  that  the  American  sailors 
called  themselves  flatfeet  as  a  protest  against  the  Jackie 
business.  Navy  philologists  give  various  explanations 
of  the  derivation  of  the  term,  and  nobody  is  quite  clear 
where  it  came  from,  though  there  is  evidence  that  it 
originated  on  the  China  coast.  Its  application  is  uni- 
versal, and  when  one  American  bluejacket  speaks  either 
of  himself  or  of  another  in  the  service  he  invariably  says 
gob.  "He's  a  hell  of  a  gob,"  says  one  to  another,  "to 
let  a  limey  take  a  girl  away  from  him." — Samuel  G. 
Blythe,  Saturday  Evening  Post,  Oct.  5,  1918. 

GOLDBRICK 

But  Wally  sidled  up  to  one  of  the  M.  P.'s  exhibiting 
his  wounded  arm  as  credentials.  Ordinarily  he  avoided 
"goldbricks"  as  the  doughboys  call  the  military  police. — 
George  Pattullo,  Saturday  Evening  Post,  Sept.  21, 
1918. 

GOTHA 

A  promising  young  poet  of  my  acquaintance,  who  in  the 
midst  of  war's  obsessions  still  finds  time  and  taste  for 
the  exercise  of  his  art  (he  is  in  a  Government  office), 
has  allowed  me  to  see  the  opening  couplet  of  what  I 
understand  to  be  a  very  ambitous  poem.  It  runs  as 
follows : — 

"Though  overhead  the  Gothas  buzz, 
Stands  London  where  it  did?    It  does." 


84  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

Many  good  judges  of  poetry  to  whom  I  have  quoted 
these  lines  think  them  very  clever. — Punch,  London, 
Oct.  3,  1917. 

GO  WEST* 

"Gone  West"  they  call  dying  out  here — we  rarely  say 
that  a  man  is  dead. — Coningsby  Dawson,  Carry  On 

(1917). 

One  of  your  cigarets  was  smoked  by  a  dying  man.  His 
passing  was  vastly  different  from  the  soldier's  death 
of  fiction.  There  was  no  calling  for  mother,  wife,  or 
sweetheart.  He  praised  your  cigaret,  cursed  feebly 
because  his  fresh  milk  tasted  sour  to  him,  and  quietly 
"went  west." — Lieutenant  Joseph  Rodman,  Letter, 
Literary  Digest,  October  26,  1918. 

GROUND-HOG  DAY 

See  whiz-bang. 

GROUSE 

"Yesterday,  little  old  Paris — day  before  yesterday, 
back  from  Nice,"  murmured  Chignole.  "To-day,  ap- 
prenticed to  death. — I'm  not  grousing;  far  from  it! 
Still,  I  will  confess,  I  was  afraid  to  come  back  to  the 
front." — Marcel  Nadaud,  Atlantic  Monthly,  Novem- 
ber, 1919. 

GUS 
See  Radadou. 

♦See  funked. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  85 

GUY 

But  that  is  not  the  whole  picture  of  those  thousands  of 
men.  In  the  foreground  radiated  their  devotion  to  one 
another,  their  homesickness,  their  sense  of  humour  sav- 
ing many  a  hopeless  situation. 

"Buddy"  they  always  called  one  another.  Your 
"guy"  was  your  very  best  pal. 

"Hey  there,  Sister,"  would  be  shouted  at  me  as  I  went 
through  the  ward,  "don't  forget  to  give  my  guy  in  the 
corner  some  cigarettes,  too." — Marion  B.  Cothren, 
N.  Y.  Times  Magazine,  March  2,  1919. 


H 


HEDGE  HOPPING 

I  went  "hedge  hopping"  last  night.  "Hedge  hopping" 
is  the  fanciful  name  for  flying  low.  I  think  it  is  per- 
haps the  most  exhilarating — and  dangerous — of  all 
phases  of  flying,  even  including  acrobatics.  It  is  the 
splendid  sensation  of  tremendous  power  and  matchless 
speed.  No  other  sensation  is  to  be  compared  with  it. — 
From  an  American  in  France,  Independent,  Nov.  16, 
1918. 

HEINIE 

See  gimper. 

HELLO  GIRL 

Washington,  Sept.  8 — American  girls  operating  tele- 
phone exchanges  for  the  expeditionary  forces  in  France 
have  transmitted  to  the  United  States  through  the  War 
Department  a  protest  against  their  designation  as 
"Hello  Girls." — Associated  Press,  Sept.  8,  1918. 

HE-MAN 

Theirs  is  a  he-man's  job;  and  they  are  tackling  it  like 
red-blooded,   two-fisted  fighters.     They  are  heroes — 

86 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  87 

all  of  them. — Robert  G.  Skerrett,  Saturday  Evening 
Post,  Oct.  26,  1918. 

H  HOUR 

See  the  jump  off. 

HINDENBURG  LINE 

There  are  two  Hindenburg  lines.  One  is  a  great  system 
of  trenches  and  dugouts  and  gun-emplacements  and 
observation-posts  stretching  across  northern  France, 
from  Arras  to  Reims,  before  Cambrai  and  St.  Quentin 
and  Laon.  To  the  German  Army  it  means  security,  a 
sure  defense,  an  opportunity  to  prepare  for  new  offen- 
sives. The  other  is  a  spiritual  line — the  confidence 
of  Germany  in  its  military  prowess,  in  the  ability  of  its 
military  leaders,  in  its  capacity  for  outfighting  and  out- 
lasting all  adversaries.  In  the  race  for  the  Hindenburg 
line  in  France  our  editors  see  the  Allied  generals  gaining 
on  the  Teutonic  retreat  specialists,  and  they  wonder 
how  much  of  his  Army  Ludendorff  will  be  able  to  take 
back  with  him  to  the  old  line  of  March  21,  and  how  long 
he  will  be  able  to  keep  it  there. — Literary  Digest,  Sept. 
7,  1918. 

HIT 

See  get  it. 

HOOSGOW 

"  We're  here,  you  and  I,  to  obey  orders  and  do  our  work. 
You'll  get  plenty  of  shooting  before  you  go  home  again, 


88  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

don't  worry.  Only  you'll  do  it  the  way  you're  told  to. 
After  all  the  time  you've  spent  in  the  hoosgow  since 
you  joined,  I  should  think  you'd  know  that." — Albert 
Payson  Terhune,  Saturday  Evening  Post,  Oct.  19, 1918. 

But  Cash  Wyble  was  breaking  himself  of  the  guard- 
house habit.  Months  had  passed  since  he  had  paid 
his  last  visit  to  the  hoosgow. — Albert  Payson 
Terhune,  Saturday  Evening  Post,  Jan.  25, 1919. 

HOOVERISH,    HOOVERISM,    HOOVERLZE 

It  is  timely,  too,  for  the  Chinese  way  of  using  meat  as  a 
condiment  favours  Hooverism.  .  .  .  "As  our  men 
are  being  scientifically  trained  that  not  one  shot  be 
wasted,  so  must  our  women  be  scientifically  trained 
that  not  one  ounce  of  food  be  wasted,"  is  a  sentence 
from  the  Dedication  of  Sally  Keene's  "Eat  to  Live"; 
and  the  same  Hooverish  words  might  have  been  used 
as  motto  in  four  other  books  on  our  list.  [The  caption 
of  the  list  is  "Hooverized  Cook  Books."] — Nation, 
Nov.  %  1918. 

Strenuous  efforts  are  now  being  made  to  teach  the 
nation  to  avoid  waste,  and  in  my  household  we  have 
coined  the  word  "Hooverize,"  corresponding  to 
"  Fletcherize,"  a  word  greatly  in  vogue  some  years  ago. 
— Christian  Observer,  Louisville,  Ky.,  Sept.  5,  1917. 

HOP,  HOP  OFF 

Trepassey,  N.  F.,  May  15. — The  "jinx"  which  visited 
the  NC-4  on  the  initial  "leg"  of  the  navy's  transatlantic 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  89 

flight  Thursday,  compelling  her  to  put  in  at  Chatham 
for  repairs,  turned  its  attention  to-day  to  the  NC-1 
and  NC-3,  holding  them  harbour-bound  while  the  NC-4 
caught  up  with  them  for  the  big  overseas  "hop."  .  . 
The  appearance  of  the  NC-4,  which  had  been  sighted 
shortly  after  the  NC-1  and  NC-3  taxied  down  the  har- 
bour, was  believed  to  have  influenced  Commander 
Towers  in  his  decision  to  postpone  the  "hop  off,' 
so  that  all  three  planes  might  start  together. — New 
York  Times,  May  16,  1919. 

HOUSEHOLD  ASSISTANT 

"Household  Assistant"  is  a  new  term  for  the  tabooed 
word  "servant"  or  its  successor  "domestic  helper." — 
Outlook,  N.  Y.,  Oct.  23,  1918. 

HUMDINGER 

Say,  Skotchie,  I  forgot  to  mention  these  American 
nurses.  They  are  humdingers,  I  want  to  tell  you. 
And,  Skotchie,  these  girls  are  all  for  you  here.  There 
isn't  anything  they  won't  do  for  you. — Letter  from 
Private  A.  B.  Callow,  Literary  Digest,  Nov.  16,  1918. 

Another  old  French  sergeant  stayed  with  us  two  days. 
He  was  a  humdinger.  He  had  a  gray  beard  and  was 
well  up  in  years;  but  there  he  was  in  the  front  trenches. 
It  seemed  that  back  in  1914  he  had  been  in  the  com- 
missary behind  the  line  because  he  was  considered  too 
old.  But  the  boches  burst  through  and  captured  him. 
Somehow  he  managed  to  escape. — George  Pattullo, 
Saturday  Evening  Post,  Nov.  2,  1918. 


90  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

HUN 

As  soon  as  you  come  to  blows  with  the  enemy  he  will 
be  beaten.  No  mercy  will  be  shown!  No  prisoners 
will  be  taken !  As  the  Huns,  under  King  Attila,  made 
a  name  for  themselves,  which  is  still  mighty  in  traditions 
and  legends  to-day,  may  the  name  of  German  be  so 
fixed  in  China  by  your  deeds  that  no  Chinese  shall 
ever  again  dare  even  to  look  at  a  German  askance.  .  .  . 
Open  the  way  for  Kultur  once  for  all. — The  Kaiser, 
Speech  to  his  soldiers  at  Bremerhaven  before  their 
departure  for  China,  July  27,  1900. 

If  for  any  reason  whatever  we  fall  short  of  victory — 
and  there  is  no  half-way  house  between  victory  and 
defeat — what  happens  to  us?  This.  Every  relation, 
every  understanding,  every  decency  upon  which  civi- 
lization has  been  so  anxiously  built  up  will  go — will  be 
washed  out,  because  it  will  have  been  proved  unable  to 
endure.  The  whole  idea  of  democracy — which  at  bot- 
tom is  what  the  Hun  fights  against — will  be  dismissed 
from  men's  minds,  because  it  will  have  been  shown  in- 
capable of  maintaining  itself  against  the  Hun.  It  will 
die;  and  it  will  die  discredited,  together  with  every  belief 
and  practice  that  is  based  on  it.  The  Hun  ideal,  the 
Hun's  root-notions  of  life,  will  take  its  place  throughout 
the  world.  Under  that  dispensation  man  will  become 
once  more  the  natural  prey,  body  and  goods,  of  his 
better-armed  neighbour.  Women  will  be  the  mere 
instrument  for  continuing  the  breed,  the  vessel  of  man's 
lust  and  man's  cruelty;  and  labour  will  become  a  thing 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  91 

to  be  knocked  on  the  head  if  it  dares  to  give  trouble, 
and  worked  to  death  if  it  does  not.  And  from  this  order 
of  life  there  will  be  no  appeal,  no  possibility  of  any 
escape.  This  is  what  the  Hun  means  when  he  says  he 
intends  to  impose  German  Kultur — which  is  the  Ger- 
man religion — upon  the  world.  This  is  precisely  what 
the  world  has  banded  itself  together  to  resist.  It  will 
take  every  ounce  in  us;  it  will  try  us  out  to  the  naked 
soul. — Rudyard  Kipling,  Address  at  Folkestone, 
England,  London  Morning  Post,  March,  1918. 

In  "The  Rowers"  [by  Kipling],  originally  published  in 
the  London  Times  in  1902,  at  the  time  when  Germany 
wished  to  embroil  England  with  the  United  States  over 
the  Venezuela  Claims,  the  word  Hun  was  used  for  the 
first  time  to  describe  the  Germans.  The  use  of  this  epi- 
thet was  based  on  the  Kaiser's  message  to  his  troops  at 
the  time  of  the  Boxer  Rebellion,  when  he  urged  his  men 
to  remember  the  name  of  Attila. — World's  Work,  July, 
1919. 

HUNLAND 

See  gimper. 

HUSH-HUSH  SHIP* 

Now  and  again  through  the  war  we  heard  of  the  "great 
mystery"  of  the  British  Navy — the  "Hush-Hush 
Ships."  The  secret  was  well  kept.  Occasionally  we 
met  a  British  naval  officer  and  our  subtle  but  persistent 
questions  were  answered  by  baffling  silence  and  the 
broadest  of  grins.     To-day  the  menace  has  departed 

*See"Q"*6»p. 


92  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

and  the  secret  is  out.  In  the  London  Times  "Barti- 
meus" — a  British  naval  officer  who  wields  a  pretty 
pen — tells  us  how  the  Q-boats  killed  the  (/-boats.  He 
writes: 

There  was  a  day,  now  happily  past,  when  the  submarine 
scourge  was  broadcast  upon  the  seas;  then  the  country 
turned  for  its  salvation  to  the  Navy,  upon  which,  under 
the  good  providence  of  God,  it  had  grown  accustomed 
to  rely  in  most  of  the  crises  of  its  history. 
It  [the  Navy]  argued  that  a  man-of-war  could  be  dis- 
guised as  a  tramp  steamer  and  carry  concealed  arma- 
ment.— Literary  Digest,  Jan.  4,  1919. 

The  Graf  Spee,  on  the  other  hand,  is  apparently  of  an 
improved  type.  She  was  recently  referred  to  in  the 
Vienna  Fremdenblatt  as  an  "  Ueber-Schlachtkreuzer," 
or  a  super  battle-cruiser,  which  suggests  that  she  is  a 
so-called  "hush-hush"  ship,  of  very  high  speed  and 
great  gun-power. — Engineer ,  July  26,  1918. 

HYPHEN 

You  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  the  hyphen.  I, 
for  one,  have  never  been  deceived.  The  number  of 
persons  of  really  divided  allegiance  in  this  country  is 
very  small. — President  Wilson,  Washington,  May  1, 
1916. 

HYPHENATE 

The  crusade  against  "hyphenates"  will  only  inflame 
the  partial  patriotism  of  trans-nationals,  and  cause 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  93 

them  to  assert  their  European  traditions  in  strident 
and  unwholesome  ways. — Randolph  S.  Bourne. — 
Atlantic  Monthly,  July,  1916. 

Camps  like  this  are  the  best  possible  antidotes  to 
hyphenated  Americanism.  The  worst  thing  that 
could  befall  this  country  would  be  to  have  the  Ameri- 
can nation  become  a  tangle  of  jangling  nationalities,  a 
knot  of  German-Americans,  Irish-Americans,  English- 
Americans,  and  French- Americans. — Theodore  Roose- 
velt, Plattsburg,  N.  Y.,  Aug.  25,  1915. 

HYPHENISM 

Neither  Englandism  nor  New  Englandism,  neither 
Puritan  nor  Cavalier,  any  more  than  Teuton  or  Slav, 
can  do  anything  but  furnish  one  note  in  a  vast  sym- 
phony. The  way  to  deal  with  hyphenism,  in  other 
words,  is  to  welcome  it,  but  to  welcome  it  in  the  sense 
of  extracting  from  each  people  its  special  good. — John 
Dewey,  Proceedings  National  Education  Association, 
1916. 


IDDY-UMPTY 

My  duty  as  supernumerary  signal  officer  is  to  superin- 
tend the  laying  of  cable  that  will  insure  telephonic 
communication  both  behind  and  on  the  line.  Our 
playful  friends,  the  infantrymen,  call  us  the  "Iddy- 
Umpties"  or  the  "Buzzers."  To  the  War  Office  we 
are  known  as  the  R.  E.  Signalers,  and  you  may  recognize 
us  easily  by  the  blue-and-white  bands  that  adorn  our 
left  arms. — Captain  A.  P.  Corcoran,  Ladies'  Home 
Journal,  Nov.,  1918. 


IMAGISM,  IMAGIST 

Yet  the  infuriated  critics  of  Imagism  suffered  still  more. 
It  was  with  a  morning-after  feeling  that  most  of  them 
realized  that,  in  trying  to  protect  the  sacred  future 
from  such  horrors  as*  "using  the  exact  word,"  from 
allowing  "freedom  in  the  choice  of  subject,"  from  a 
poetry  that  was  "hard  and  clear"  and  from  the  im- 
portance of  "concentration,"  they  were  actually  at- 
tacking the  best  traditions  of  their  beloved  past.    .    .    . 


The  quoted  words  that  follow  are  taken  from  the  credo  of  the  lmagists  as  found  in 
their  first  anthology,  Some  Imagist  rods  (1915). 

94 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  95 

"We  are  not  a  school  of  painters,"  the  Imagists  de- 
clared; and  in  this  very  self-conscious  denial  they  drew 
attention  to  their  primary  weakness,  for  much  of  their 
work  was  definitely  derived  not  merely  from  painting 
but  from  the  technique  of  painting.  They  were  too 
often  completely  satisfied  to  make  one  isolated  image 
serve  as  a  work  in  its  entirety;  they  spent  all  their 
energies  polishing  one  detail  of  composition  which  a 
more  robust  creator  would  have  thrown  off  as  an  illumi- 
nating bit  to  be  fused  with  something  warmer  and 
larger.  In  their  striving  to  produce  an  atmospheric 
effect,  a  single  line  of  movement,  a  mere  flash  of  colour, 
and  considering  such  productions  the  Ding  an  sich,  an 
end  in  itself,  they  showed  their  very  preoccupation 
with  painting  and  music,  and  with  the  most  tenuous 
aspects  of  these.  Their  uncoordinated  striving  to  re- 
produce such  effects  revealed  an  art  less  concerned 
with  its  own  power  than  with  ideas  taken  from  other 
arts,  and  it  disclosed,  as  The  New  Republic  pointed  out, 
"a  certain  poverty  of  poetic  feeling  ...  a  certain 
slenderness  and  intellectuality  of  inspiration  not  com- 
patible with  the  making  of  vital  poetry." — Louis 
Untermeyer,  The  New  Era  in  American  Poetry  (1919). 

INCLINOMETER 

Many  new  instruments  have  been  devised  for  aircraft. 
These  include  .  .  .  inclinometers,  which  indicate 
the  angle  of  the  plane. — Problems  of  Aeroplane  Improve- 
ment, by  Naval  Consulting  Board  of  the  U.  S.,  Aug. 
h  1918. 


96  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

IN  THE  PINK 

The  mud-soaked  "old  Bills"  of  the  trenches,  cheer- 
fully ignoring  vermin,  rain,  and  shell  fire,  continue  to 
wind  up  their  epistles  with,  "Hoping  this  finds  you  in 
the  pink,  as  it  leaves  me  at  present."  They  are  always 
in  the  pink  for  epistolary  purposes,  whatever  the  strafing 
or  the  weather.  That's  England;  at  all  costs,  she  has 
to  be  a  sportsman.  I  wonder  she  doesn't  write  on  the 
crosses  above  her  dead,  "Yours  in  the  pink:  a  British 
soldier,  killed  in  action."  England  is  in  the  pink  forthe 
duration  of  the  war. — Contngsby  Dawson,  Out  to  Win 
(1918). 

They  are  as  fit  and  as  keen  as  when  they  left  England 
for  the  north,  and  as  for  the  Americans  they  are  in  the 
pink. — Samuel  G.  Blythe,  Saturday  Evening  Post, 
Nov.  2,  1918. 

IRON  RATIONS  ] 

The  regiment  had  been  marching,  digging,  or  fighting, 
day  and  night  for  seventy-two  hours,  snatching  mo- 
ments of  loglike  slumber  and  gnawing  ravenously  from 
time  to  time  upon  its  iron  rations,  as  the  compact  re- 
serve of  food  which  each  soldier  carries  upon  his  back 
is  called,  until  now  that  was  gone  and  for  twelve  hours 
the  men  had  scarcely  tasted  food. — Peter  Clark  Mac- 
FARLANE,  Saturday  Evening  Post,  Jan.  18,  1919. 

IRREDENTIST,  IRREDENTISM 

I  am  so  little  an  Irredentist  that  if  Austria  were  to 
offer  us  Trento,  Trieste,  Istria,  and  Dalmatia  on  con- 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  97 

dition  that  we  abstain  from  entering  the  war  against 
the  central  empires,  I  should  be  in  favour  of  refusing. 
The  problem  of  the  war  is  not  a  problem  of  Irreden- 
tism.  It  is  the  problem  of  Italian  freedom. — Giuseppe 
Prezzolini,  New  York  Times  Current  History,  Dec, 
1915. 

Trieste  for  the  Italians  has  been  the  symbol  of  "irre- 
dentism,"  of  land  unredeemed,  in  the  Istrian  peninsula, 
and  throughout  its  500  years  of  domination  by  Austria 
the  city  has  steadfastly  refused  to  abandon  its  Italian 
nativity. — New  York  Times,  Nov.  4,  1918. 

ITALIA  IRREDENTA 

These  territories  [Trentino,  Trieste,  and  Istria]  are 
subject  to  Austria  and  as  long  as  Italy  was  allied  with 
Austria  she  was  kept  from  any  attempt  to  gain  this 
Italia  irredenta  or  unredeemed  Italy,  and  thus  so  to 
round  out  her  boundaries  as  to  include  within  them 
people  who  are  Italian  in  race,  in  language,  and,  prob- 
ably, in  sympathy. — C.  D.  Hazen,  Modern  European 
History  (1917),  p.  441. 


JACK  JOHNSON 

See  crump, 

JAKE 
See  no  bloody  bom 

JAWBONE 

I  have  been  interested  in  reading  contributions  to 
your  columns  regarding  the  origin  of  the  expression 
"jawbone,"  meaning  credit.  The  Kansas  City  Star 
says  it  is  a  "new"  slang  expression  used  in  the  army, 
and  one  of  your  contributors  says  it  originated  with 
the  American  army  in  the  Philippines  twenty  years  ago. 
There  is  nothing  new  or  mysterious  about  the  expres- 
sion. It  means  to  obtain  credit  at  a  store  by  talk  or 
"jawbone."  When  I  was  a  boy  in  the  then  territory 
of  Washington  nearly  forty  years  ago,  it  was  a  common 
expression  in  the  neighbourhood  in  which  I  was  raised. — 
New  York  Times,  March  8,  1918. 

The  Salvation  Army,  says  Colonel  Barker,  literally 
"went  to  the  front"  for  those  soldiers. 

"Without  any  delay  or  'red  tape'  we  sent  $5,000  worth 
of  canteen  supplies  to  these  men  and  'jawboned'  the 
entire  battalion.     To  'jawbone'  means,  in  the  dough- 

98 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  99 

boy  vernacular,  'to  trust.'  Nor  did  we  have  any  reason 
to  regret  our  prompt  action,  for  these  doughboys  paid 
us  every  cent  they  owed  just  as  soon  as  they  received 
their  money.  Each  man  acted  as  his  own  bookkeeper 
and  their  accounts  were  straight  as  a  string." — Literary 
Digest,  Oct.  19,  1918. 

/  JAZZ 

The  latest  international  word  seems  to  be  "jazz."  It 
is  used  almost  exclusively  in  British  papers  to  describe 
the  kind  of  music  and  dancing — particularly  dancing — 
imported  from  America,  thereby  arousing  discussion, 
in  which  bishops  do  not  disdain  to  participate,  to  fill 
all  the  papers.  While  society  once  "ragged,"  they  now 
"jazz."  In  this  country,  though  we  have  been  toler- 
ably familiar  with  the  word  for  two  years  or  more,  we 
still  try  to  pursue  its  mysterious  origins.  Lieut.  James 
Reese  Europe,  late  of  the  Machine-Gun  Battalion  of 
the  loth  Regiment,  tells  Mr.  Grenville  Vernon,  of  the 
New  York  Tribune,*  that  the  word  comes  from  Mr. 
Razz,  who  led  a  band  in  New  Orleans  some  fifteen  years 
ago  and  whose  fame  is  perpetuated  in  a  somewhat 
modified  form. — Literary  Digest,  April,  1919. 

I  wish  to  cast  a  brighter  light  among  those  who  are 
so  very  prejudiced  against  popular  music — so-called 
ragtime  or  jazz. — G.  L.  Simonds,  Baltimore  Evening 
Sun,  Nov.  21,  1918. 

If  the  pilot  finds  himself  with  a  suddenly  stopt  pro- 


*See  Tribune,  March  30, 1919,  and  Item,  New  Orleans,  March  9, 1919. 


100  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

peller  or  "dead  stick,"  he  will  ordinarily  first  do  a  nose 
dive,  "jazzing"  the  throttle  meanwhile,  to  see  if  the 
tremendous  blast  of  air  on  the  propeller  will  start  the 
motor.  Frequently  the  attempt  is  successful. — Power 
Plant  Engineering,  Chicago,  March  15,  1919. 

A  Port  in  Scotland  (by  mail),  Oct.  19. — According  to 
H.  J.  Hollinshead,  of  Evanston,  111.,  secretary  in  an 
American  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  naval  hut 
somewhere  in  Scotland,  the  canny  highlander  is  suc- 
cumbing to  the  lure  of  our  navy's  jazz  bands,  and  in 
many  a  "wee  hoose  on  the  heather"  the  bagpipe  stands 
in  the  corner  unused.  Baltimore  Evening  Sun,  Nov.  4, 
1918. 

JAZZ  BOES 

Yankee  "Jazz  Boes,"  as  American  coloured  troops  are 
called  in  France,  constructing  a  railway  behind  the  front 
lines. — Under  a  picture  in  New  York  Times,  Nov.  3, 
1918. 

JERRY 

To  the  English  Tommy  a  German  is  a  "Fritz,"  and 
"Fritz"  he  is  to  the  Canadians.  The  Scotch  call  him 
an  "  Allyman"  (probably  after  the  French  "  Allemand") 
but  he  is  nobody  to  the  Irish  but  a  "Jerry." — William 
Philip  Simms,  Baltimore  Star,  June  22,  1917. 

But  we  haven't  space  to  print  all  that  our  men  say 
about  Fritz — or  Jerry,  as  he  is  oftener  called  now.  Their 
verdict  is  unanimous. — Independent,  Nov.  16,  1918. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  101 

Secretary  of  War  Baker  in  an  address  at  the  Southern 
Hotel  last  Saturday  said  that  French  officers  and  states- 
men had  told  him  that  the  Americans  at  Chateau- 
Thierry  had  saved  Paris  and  made  victory  certain  for 
the  Allies  in  much  shorter  time  than  they  ever  had 
expected.  The  Americans  not  only  killed  and  wounded 
and  captured  the  Boches  at  Chateau-Thierry  and  drove 
them  back  in  the  direction  of  the  Vaterland,  but  they 
did  infinitely  more.  They  broke  the  morale  of  the 
Hun.  In  the  slang  of  the  day,  they  "got  Jerry's 
goat." — Vincent  de  P.  Fitzpatrick,  Baltimore  Sun, 
Oct.  27,  1918. 

JIMMY  VALENTINE* 

Jimmy  Valentine  is  not  always  the  unregenerate  yegg 
we  assume  him  to  be.  Very  often  he  is  a  closer  student 
of  what  is  being  done  in  the  scientific  world  than  many 
of  the  gentlemen  set  to  catch  him.  For  it  is  necessary, 
in  Jimmy's  calling,  that  one  keep  abreast  of  all  the 
latest  inventions  and,  as  fast  as  a  new  discovery  threat- 
ens to  destroy  one's  means  of  livelihood,  to  find  some 
way  to  circumvent  it.  So  we  find  Jimmy  learning  new 
tricks  as  the  new  tricks  are  needed.  A  yegg  is  nothing 
if  not  progressive. — Literary  Digest,  Dec.  30,  1916. 

JITNEY 

The  origin  of  the  word  "jitney"  stumped  the  lexicog- 
rapher of  the  Literary  Digest.  He  hesitated  as  follows: 
"Jitney"  is  said  to  be  slang  for  "a  nickel."     It  is  used 

"See  A  Retrieved  Reformation,  by  O.  Henry  (1903). 


102  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

to  designate  a  type  of  motor  vehicle  that  carries  passen- 
gers for  5  cents.  The  origin  of  the  term  is  uncertain; 
it  may  have  been  derived  from  a  personal  name. 

The  origin  of  "jitney?"  Somelbody  else  besides  the 
lexicographer  of  the  Literary  Digest  has  made  a  guess. 
He  suggests — nay,  asserts — that  it  is  a  corruption  of  a 
Russian  word  for  a  coin  having  approximately  the 
value  of  5  cents.  But  here's  another  effort:  "The 
term  is  said  to  have  originated  with  the  gamblers  of  the 
Southwest,  and  is  a  contraction  of  two  Mexican  words 
meaning  lowest  value,  as  until  recently  the  nickel  or 
5-cent  piece,  designated  as  a  'jitney,'  was  the  smallest 
change  in  circulation  in  that  section . ' '  And  still  another : 
"The  word  comes  from  the  slang  of  the  street  arab,  who 
has  a  name  for  every  coin.  A  'meg'  is  a  cent,  a  'jit'  or 
'jitney'  is  a  nickel,  a  'dimmo'  is  a  dime,  and  a  'cute' 
is  a  quarter." 

The  word,  with  the  progress  of  civilization,  if  you  will 
have  it  so,  has  now  become  firmly  fixed  in  the  American 
language.  State  Senator  Price,  of  Kansas,  has  risen 
to  call  Mr.  William  Allen  White  a  "jitney  statesman." 
Mr.  White  embraces  the  label  with  eagerness,  and  by 
that  act  seems  to  give  a  certain  respectability  and  dig- 
nity to  the  appellation. — Washington  Post,  March  28, 
1915. 

JOCK 

Then  all  along  our  line  came  a  cheer  and  our  boys  came 
over  the  top  in  a  charge.  The  first  wave  was  composed 
of   "Jocks."     They   were   a   magnificent   sight,   kilts 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  103 

flapping  in  the  wind,  bare  knees  showing,  and  their 
bayonets  glistening.  .  .  .  One  young  Scottie,  when 
he  came  abreast  of  my  shell  hole,  leaped  into  the  air, 
his  rifle  shooting  out  of  his  hands,  landing  about  six 
feet  in  front  of  him,  bayonet  first,  and  stuck  in  the 
ground,  the  butt  trembling. — Arthur  Guy  Empey, 
Over  the  Top  (1917). 


JOHN 

Lieut.  Daniel  E.  Walsh,  Three  Hundred  and  Thir- 
teenth Infantry,  sends  an  inkling  of  what  the  Seventy- 
ninth  Division  has  been  doing  in  France.  In  a  letter 
to  his  parents,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  M.  E.  Walsh,  West- 
minster: "I  have  some  great  tales  to  tell  you  all 
when  I  get  back.  You  know  they  call  a  man  who  has 
seen  no  service  a  'John.'  Well,  I  am  not  a  'John' 
any  more." — Baltimore  News,  Oct.  24,  1918. 


JONGLEUR 

When  the  first  detachments  of  lassies  arrived  near  the 
firing  lines  and  began  to  turn  out  doughnuts  by  the 
thousand,  the  French  soldiers  stood  about  watching 
in  amazement.  The  dexterity  of  the  cooks  they 
characterized  as  juggling,  and  "le  jongleur"  was  heard 
on  every  side.  The  American  soldiers  think  it  is  the 
greatest  fun  to  assist  in  cooking  the  doughnuts  and  they 
carry  wood  and  water,  and  help  mix  the  dough. — 
Private  John  Allen,  Leslie's  V/eekly,  Oct.  19,  1918. 


104  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

JOY-STICK 

A  bare  minute  of  this  (Sidmore  always  cut  the  prelimi- 
naries to  a  minimum),  then  the  speed  of  the  plane  in- 
creased, it  nosed  up  into  the  wind,  the  pilot  pulled  the 
"joy-stick,"  as  the  lever  which  operates  the  elevating 
planes  is  called,  and  the  machine  took  the  air. — D.  H. 
Haines,  American  Boy,  Feb.,  1919. 

C.'s  bus  was  then  seen  to  heel  over  into  a  vertical  dive, 
and  plunge  down,  spinning  rhythmically  on  its  axis. 
Probably  he  was  shot  dead  and  fell  over  on  to  the  joy- 
stick, and  this  put  the  machine  to  its  last  dive. — "Con- 
tact" (Alan  Bott),  Cavalry  of  the  Clouds  (1918). 

Papa  Charles  pulled  the  joy-stick;  the  aeroplane  nosed 
up,  leaped,  took  a  tail-dive  of  several  hundred  metres. — 
Marcel  Nadaud,  Atlantic  Monthly,  Nov.,  1918. 

JUGO-SLAV 

Together  with  the  Croats  and  Slovenes  of  southern 
Austria-Hungary,  the  Serbs  are  called  the  Jugo-Slavs 
(yo6  go-slavz)  or  South-Slavs  (jugo  means  "south") 
to  distinguish  them  from  the  Czechs,  Poles,  and  Rus- 
sians of  the  north.  There  is,  however,  a  strong  feeling 
of  relationship  between  these  two  great  Slavic  groups. — 
A  School  History  of  the  Great  War  (1918)  by  McKinley, 
Coulomb,  and  Gerson,  p.  61. 

THE  JUMP  OFF 

With  the  American  Armies  in  France,  September  17. — 
"Zero  hour"  and  "over  the  top"  are  expressions  which 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  10J 

have  passed  from  the  American  Army  after  long  pop- 
ularity with  the  British. 

America's  attack  in  the  Lorraine  sector  has  brought  out 
typical  American  expressions. 

"Over  the  top"  is  now  "the  jump  off"  and  "zero 
hour"  has  changed  to  "H  hour." — Baltimore  Star, 
Sept.  17,  1918. 

JUSQU*  AU  BOUT 

M.  Lloyd  George  adressant  recemment  un  nouveau 
message  au  peuple  britannique,  1'  invitait  a,  com- 
battre  jusqu'  au  bout  ces  violences  feroces. — Nou- 
velles  de  France,  October  3,  1918. 

La  cinquieme  annee  de  guerre  trouve  tous  les  peuples 
de  F  Entente  maitres  de  leurs  nerfs,  surs  de  leur  volonte, 
resolus  a  aller  jusqu'  au  bout. — Revue  des  Deux  Mondes, 
Paris,  Aug.  1,  1918,  p.  483. 

JUSQUABOUTIST* 

As  a  reasonable  jusquaboutist  I  have  some  misgivings 
about  Mr.  Henry  Arthur  Jones's  farce-parable,  The 
Pacifists. — Punch,  London,  Sept.  12,  1917. 

♦See  bitter-ender. 


K 


KAMERAD 

A  comrade  is  an  equal,  entitled  to  be  received  and 
treated  on  a  basis  of  equality.  A  comrade  is  a  loyal, 
trustworthy  fellow,  who  keeps  his  word  and  plays  no 
foul  tricks.  A  comrade  is  a  cheerful  companion,  a 
pleasant  roommate,  a  person  with  whom  one  can  safely 
and  happily  share  bed  and  board  and  life's  adventure. 
Has  Germany's  conduct  in  this  war  given  her  any  right 
to  use  the  word  "Kamerad"  as  a  sign  of  surrender? 
No.  It  is  a  gross  exaggeration,  a  cowardly  subterfuge, 
a  typically  Teutonic  form  of  impudence,  all  the  more 
disagreeable  because  it  is  probably  unconscious. 
What  the  German  soldier  really  means  when  he  holds 
up  his  hands  is  that  he  is  sick  of  fighting,  he  has  had 
enough,  he  wants  to  quit  and  to  be  let  off  as  easily  as 
possible.  There  are  several  good  old  German  words 
to  express  this  state  of  mind  and  the  corresponding 
action.  Let  him  learn  to  use  one  of  these.  The  most 
appropriate  would  be  "iibergeben,"  which  not  only 
signifies  to  surrender,  to  capitulate,  to  hand  over,  but 
also,  by  a  singular  irony  of  language,  means  to  be  sick 
at  the  stomach,  to  vomit,  to  throw  up. 

106 


NEW  \YORDS  SELF-DEFINED  107 

That's  the  word,  Wilhelm  and  Fritz!  Capitulate  and 
disgorge ! 

Neither  in  the  surrender  of  a  German  soldier  nor  in  the 
capitulation  of  the  Germany  which  has  made  this  war, 
can  we  admit  the  word  "Kamerad."  It  is  premature, 
puerile,  and  preposterous,  a  gross  exaggeration.— Henry 
van  Dyke,  New  York  Times,  Oct.  26,  1918. 

Suddenly,  to  his  consternation,  eight  Bodies  came  out 
of  a  shell  hole  right  in  front  of  him.  He  started  to 
"kamerad,"  but  to  his  surprise  all  eight  of  the  enemy 
threw  up  their  hands  and  "kameraded"  He  took 
heart,  began  to  realize  what  the  situation  was,  and 
turned  the  crank  of  the  camera  as  fast  as  he  could. 
Shrieks  and  more  " kamerading"  from  the  Huns.  They 
thought  he  had  a  machine  gun  on  them!  It  was  a 
laughable  sight  to  see  this  moving-picture  man  marching 
behind  the  eight  Boches,  all  their  "hardware"  on  him, 
and  they  carrying  his  moving-picture  apparatus. — 
Captain  Carroll  J.  Swan,  My  Company  (1918). 

K-BOAT 

"The  4th  August,  1916,  saw  the  commissioning  of  a 
boat  which  was  a  revolution  in  submarine  design.  This 
was  the  first  K-boat.  This  class  was  designed  for  the 
expected  fleet  action:  their  qualities  were  to  be — that 
they  should  have  several  knots  in  hand  over  the  speed 
of  the  battle  fleet,  that  they  should  be  seaworthy  and 
able  to  cruise  with  the  fleet,  and  that  they  should  have 
the  necessary  submarine  qualities  to  enable  them  to 


108  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

deal  with  the  high  sea  fleet  when  it  should  be  met. 
These  qualities  they  have;  but  it  is  regretted  that  the 
enemy  gave  them  no  chance  of  trying  their  luck  in  ac- 
tion." The  foregoing  description  omits  to  mention 
one  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  the  "K"  class, 
viz.,  the  installation  of  steam  machinery  for  surface 
propulsion  in  place  of  the  internal  combustion  engines 
fitted  to  all  previous  British  submarines. — Engineer, 
Feb.  21,  1919. 

KEEWEE,  KEWIE 

"Did  you  know,  Dan,"  Grayson  asked  in  a  tone  loud 
enough  so  that  the  three  victims  would  be  sure  to  hear, 
'that  there's  a  new  test  for  aviators?" 
"No,"  answered  Dan.  "What  is  it?" 
"They  call  it  the  'sea  test.'  If  a  man  misses  more  than 
two  meals  on  the  way  across  they  make  him  a  'keewee' !" 
Grayson  made  use  of  a  slang  word  of  the  aviation  camps, 
the  keewee  being  an  Australian  bird  which  has  wings 
but  doesn't  fly,  and  the  term  being  one  of  good-natured 
scorn  applied  by  the  fliers  to  the  men  in  the  non-flying 
branches  of  the  service. — Donal  H.  Haines,  American 
Boy,  March,  1919. 

A  "kewie  bird"  is  a  chap  who  flies  little  but  always 
comes  back  with  a  tale  of  terrible  fighting  whenever  he 
gets  into  his  machine. 

"We  call  such  fliers  kcwie  birds,"  explained  one  of  the 
real  birdmen  who  never  talks  to  himself,  "because  the 
kewie  is  a  bird  inhabiting  the  shores  of  Newfoundland. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  109 

It  always  flaps  its  wings  and  squawks  a  lot  but  never 
rises  from  the  earth." — Baltimore  Star,  Oct.  9, 1918.' 

KITE  BALLOON 

While  admittedly  less  spectacular  than  the  aeroplane, 
the  cumbersome  kite  balloon,  tugging  away  at  its  moor- 
ing cable  in  a  gentle  breeze,  is  invaluable  in  the  present 
war.  For  artillery  spotting]  and  general  observation 
work  it  is  in  some  respects  superior  to  the  aeroplane; 
but  its  employment  is  quite  apart  and  distinct  from  that 
of  the  heavier-than-air  craft.  Kite  balloons  are  pri- 
marily intended  for  the  regulation  of  artillery  fire, 
particularly  in  connection  with  heavy  batteries. 
Whereas  the  observer  in  an  aeroplane  is  constantly 
shifting  his  position  while  on  observation  duty,  travel- 
ling all  the  while  at  a  high  rate  of  speed,  the  kite  balloon 
crew  has  all  the  advantages  of  a  fixed  post,  which  makes 
for  maximum  accuracy  in  spotting  shell  hits. — Bertram 
W.  Williams,  Scientific  American,  Oct.  6,  1917. 

KULTUR 

Current  discussion  of  the  worth  of  German  culture  has 
been  almost  hopelessly  clouded  by  the  fact  that  when 
a  German  speaks  of  Kultur  he  means  an  entirely  differ- 
ent thing  from  what  a  Latin  or  Briton  means  by  culture. 
Kultur  means  the  organized  efficiency  of  a  nation  in  the 
broadest  sense — its  successful  achievement  in  civil  and 
military  administration,  industry,  commerce,  finance, 
and  in  a  quite  secondary  way  in  scholarship,  letters, 
and  art.     Kultur  applies  to  a  nation  as  a  whole,  im- 


110  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

plying  an  enlightened  Government  to  which  the  in- 
dividual is  strictly  subordinated.  Thus  Kultur  is  an 
attribute  not  of  individuals — whose  particular  inter- 
ests, on  the  contrary,  must  often  be  sacrificed  to  it — 
but  of  nations. 

Culture,  for  which  the  nearest  German  equivalent  is 
Bildung,  is  the  opposite  of  all  this.  It  is  an  attribute 
not  of  nations  as  a  whole  but  of  accomplished  individ- 
uals.— Frank  Jewett  Mather,  Jr.,  New  York  Times 
Current  History,  Jan.  9,  1915. 

The  right  translation  of  Kultur  seems  to  be  everything 
in  organized  civilization  except  culture.  For  true  cul- 
ture the  Prussian  has  no  use — he  despises  and  dislikes 
it;  its  opposite,  which  is  aggressive  war,  he  thinks  noble 
and  exhilarating. — Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  War  and  After 
(1918). 


LASHAY 

A  plane  which  slews  round  after  landing,  as  planes  are 
very  likely  to  do,  makes  a  cheval  de  bois  or  "wooden 
horse" — behaves,  that  rs  to  say,  like  a  horse  on  a  merry- 
go-round.  A  pupil  who  makes  the  required  number  of 
perfect  landings,  coming  down  like  a  grouse,  lightly, 
head  into  the  wind,  without  banging  his  tail,  "making 
a  cheval,"  or  scraping  his  wings,  or  nosing  over,  is 
lache — "released,"  that  is  to  say,  and  ready  to  pass 
on  to  the  next  field.  And  you  hear  some  American 
sergeant  coming  up  to  go  on  with  the  score  bawl  out: 
"Hey,  Bill!  How  many  lashays  have  you  got?" — 
Aethue  Ruhl,  Collier's,  Sept.  21,  1918. 


LAZLOISM 

The  word  is  coined  in  London  to  represent  "a  friendly 
enemy  alien."  The  contradiction  in  such  a  phrase  ex- 
presses what  the  people  regard  as  a  large  class  who 
ought  to  be  interned.  The  distinguished  portrait 
painter,  Mr.  Philip  Lazlo,  who  happens  to  typify  this 
class,  has  been  domiciled  in  England  for  a  number  of 
years  where  he  achieved  great  popularity  as  the  portrait- 
Ill 


112  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

ist  particularly  of  the  men  and  women  of  the  smart  set. 
— Literary  Digest,  Dec.  15,  1917. 

The  public  is  very  patient,  but  there  is  a  limit  to  its 
complaisance,  and  it  is  quite  evident  to  the  man  in  the 
street  that  Lazloism  may  be  as  dangerous  as  Boloism; 
that  the  former,  indeed,  may  be  the  undesirable  parent 
of  the  latter.  We  distrust  the  whole  legend  of  the 
"friendly  enemy  alien."  We  "don't  believe  there  is  no 
sich  person."  He  is  a  myth  invented  to  explain  the 
battalions  of  the  uninterned,  and  we  are  coolly  asked  to 
assume  that  an  uninterned  enemy  is  necessarily  a  friend. 
— Pall  Mall  Gazette,  London,  Nov.,  1917. 


LEATHERNECK 

Joe,  as  they  is  so  few  things  you  know,  not  meanin' 
you're  dumb  or  the  like,  only  thick,  I  will  tell  you  what 
a  Leatherneck  is.  Joe,  a  Leatherneck  is  the  baby  they 
send  for  when  Mexico  or  some  of  them  other  South- 
American  joints  which  is  under  the  protection  of  Uncle 
Sam  gets  fresh  and  tries  to  go  Republican.  The  Lea- 
thernecks is  rushed  special  delivery  on  a  battleship 
and  lands  at  this  joint  and  the  next  mornin'  the  papers 
says,  "A  detachment  of  United  States  marines  was 
landed  at  Porto  Bananas  to  put  down  a  revolution. 
They  was  no  trouble.  The  revolutionists  was  buried  in 
lots  of  a  thousand  each.  One  marine  got  wounded. 
He  stumbled  over  the  Porto  Bananas  army  whilst 
comin'  back  to  his  ship." — H.  C.  W7itwer,  Marines' 
Bulletin  Holiday  Number,  1918. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  113 

LES  TERRIBLES 

The  32d  Division  has  thus  won  a  splendid  name  for 
bravery  and  initiative.  This  has  been  recognized  by 
the  French  title  "Les  Terribles,"  which  has  been  be- 
stowed upon  it.  No  unit  in  our  army  presents  men  of 
better  physique  than  these  Indians,  lumberjacks,  and 
farmer  lads  from  the  Northwest.  They  will  be  heard 
from  again. — Edwin  L.  James,  New  York  Times,  Sept. 
9,  1918. 

LIAISON 

v 

"Liaison,"  as  an  English  word,  is  the  most  interesting 
of  all.  Hitherto  we  have  borrowed  it  in  two  senses — 
in  the  culinary  sense  and  in  the  amorous  sense.  Now  we 
are  using  it  in  a  military  sense,  in  which  an  "officier  de 
liaison"  means  a  staff  officer  charged  with  the  duty  of 
linking  together  different  armies  or  units.  The  amo- 
rous sense  needs  no  explanation. — London  Times,  April, 
1915. 

As  we  were  supposed  to  keep  up  a  liaison  with  the  next 
post  where  the  sergeant  was,  I  crouched  by  a  tree  to 
sort  of  get  a  hold  of  myself  and  decide  what  to  do,  for  I 
couldn't  keep  up  the  liaison  myself  and  watch  the  post, 
too. — Letter  from  Corporal  H.  E.  Hilty,  Literary 
Digest,  Nov.  16,  1918. 

We  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  mere  ma- 
chinery of  liaison  officer  and  occasional  meetings  of 
chiefs  of  staffs  is  utterly  inadequate  and  inefficient  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  real  coordination.      You  must 


114  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

have  a  permanent  body  constantly  watching  these 
things,  advising  upon  them  and  reporting  them  to 
the  Government,  whether  our  front,  the  French  front, 
or  the  Russian  front  is  most  concerned. — Lloyd 
George  in  House  of  Commons,  Nov.  19,  1917. 

LIBERTY  CABBAGE 

"Liberty  cabbage,"  made  in  Germany  and  there  still 
known  as  sauerkraut,  has  been  served  at  many  Ameri- 
can army  messes  during  the  week,  five  carloads  of  the 
edible  having  been  left  behind  by  the  withdrawing 
German  army. — Associated  Press,  New  York  Times, 
Nov.  30,  1918. 

LIBERTY  MOTOR 

As  for  the  Liberty  Motor,  its  story  is  almost  too  well 
known  to  readers  of  the  World's  Work  to  bear  repetition 
here,  even  fragmentarily.  Suffice  it  that  when  peace 
came  we  had  built  15,131  of  these  440-horsepower 
engines  as  well  as  16,683  of  other  types;  that  we  had 
under  way  a  programme  calling  for  51,100  Liberty 
Twelves  and  8,000  Liberty  Eights  and  the  machines 
were  coming  through  at  a  rate  faster  than  5,000  a 
a  month,  with  the  reasonable  certainty  that  before 
summer  the  production  would  be  10,000  a  month  or 
more.  The  British  and  the  French  were  buying  Lib- 
erty Motors  from  us,  redesigning  their  airplanes  to 
take  the  higher-powered  engine.  June  would  have 
seen  the  American  Expeditionary  Forces  equipped 
with  five  or  six  times  as  many  service  airplanes  as  the 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  115 

Germans  had  ever  been  able  to  put  into  service  at  one 
time,  all  fitted  with  Liberty  Motors,  while  the  Allies 
would  have  been  flying  more  Liberty-motored  planes 
than  of  all  other  types  of  engine. — Frank  Parker 
Stockbridge,  World's  Work,  March,  1919. 

LIMY,  LIMEY* 

There  was  always  a  shortage  of  fresh  vegetables.  On 
English  ships — even  to  the  present  day  I  take  it,  or  to 
my  personal  knowledge  as  late  as  1912 — a  pannikin 
of  lime  juice  was  served  out  at  high  noon  to  each  mem- 
ber of  the  crew  as  a  help  against  scurvy.  Hence  the 
nickname  lime- juicer,  or  more  simply,  limy.  But  scurvy 
will  never  break  out  as  long  as  there  are  fresh  vegetables 
at  hand. — R.  M.  Hallet,  Saturday  Evening  Post, 
Feb.  22,  1919. 

As  soon  as  the  street  lamps  were  lighted,  squads  of  the 
American  navy  patrol  began  to  stroll  about,  swinging 
short,  heavy  sticks  with  a  loop  at  one  end  and  display- 
ing no  sympathy  whatever  for  the  shipmate  who 
steered  a  zigzag  course  in  imitation  of  a  destroyer  work- 
ing offshore  or  who  loudly  announced  that  he  could  whip 
any  three  "Limies"  that  ever  trod  a  British  deck. — 
Ralph  D.  Paine,  The  Fighting  Fleets  (1918),  p.  87. 

LOOK-SEE 

"In  about  five  minutes  we'll  come  up  and  take  a  look- 
see  [stick  up  the  periscope],  and  if  we  see  the  bird,  and 

•Seeaofc. 


11G  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

we're  in  a  good  position  to  send  him  a  fish  [torpedo], 
we'll  let  him  have  one.  If  there  is  something  there, 
and  we're  not  in  a  good  position,  we'll  manoeuvre 
till  we  get  into  one,  and  then  let  him  have  it.  If  there 
isn't  anything  to  be  seen,  we'll  go  under  again  and 
take  another  look-see  in  half  an  hour.  Reilly  has  his 
instructions."  (Reilly  was  chief  of  the  torpedo-room.) 
Henry  B.  Beston,  Atlantic  Monthly,  Nov.,  1918. 

LOUNGE-LIZARD 

It  will  occur  to  him  that  he  wasn't  vexed  then  by  the 
task  of  trying  to  keep  his  trousers  from  bagging  at  the 
knees,  a  thing  which  no  human  being  except  a  lounge- 
lizard  has  ever  succeeded  in  doing  for  a  whole  day  on 
a  stretch.  On  second  thought,  I  would  remove  the 
lounge-lizard  from  the  category  of  authentic  human 
beings.  I  will  concede  he  is  a  mammal,  but  further 
than  that  I  would  not  care  to  commit  myself. — Irvtn 
S.  Cobb,  American  Magazine,  March,  1919. 

LOW  VISIBILITY 

The  German  battle  fleet,  aided  by  low  visibility, 
avoided  a  prolonged  action  with  our  main  forces. — 
British  Admiralty's  Report  on  Battle  of  Jutland, 
London,  June  2,  1916. 

It  is  not  a  nice  position  for  the  head  of  a  large  corpora- 
tion to  take,  but  he  is  following  historically  in  the 
footsteps  of  some  other  Western  Union  presidents,  one 
of  whom  deflected  the  genius  of  Elisha  Gray  from 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  117 

developing  the  telephone.  Another  president,  of 
similar  "low  visibility"  completely  failed  to  encourage 
the  genius  of  Edison,  who  was  forced  to  work  else- 
where than  in  the  telegraph  business,  and  whose  won- 
derful achievements  since  are  known  to  all  mankind. — 
New  York  Evening  Post,  Dec,  1918. 

LUNATIC  FRINGE 
See  cubist. 


M 


MAHANISM  AND  MOLTKEISM 

The  Germans,  although  they  adopted  his  [Admiral 
Mahan's]  ideas  before  the  war,  later  claimed  to  repudi- 
ate them,  and  some  of  their  writers  insisted  that  the 
struggle  was  between  "Mahanism  and  Moltkeism," 
that  is,  between  Mahan's  idea  that  sea-power  is  decisive, 
and  Moltke's  policy  of  exclusive  reliance  on  land  forces. 
— Sidney  Gunx,  Naval  Institute,  Annapolis,  Md., 
Nov.,  1918. 

MANDATARY,  MANDATORY 

The  method  is  to  place  such  [backward]  peoples  under 
the  tutelage  of  more  advanced  nations  called  manda- 
taries, which  will  act  under  charters  granted  by  the 
Council,  and  will  report  to  a  mandatory  commission 
which  will  assist  the  mandatory  nation  and  enforce  the 
mandate. — Summary  of  League  of  Nations  Covenant,  by 
League  of  Free  Nations  Association,  May  3,  1919,  N.  Y. 

MAOUS 

Stranger  still  is  the  history  of  another  famous,  non- 
Parisian  word,  maous,  meaning  big.     Mr.  Dauzat  has 

118 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  119 

tracked  it  down  through  maJwu  (heavy,  in  the  patois  of 
Anjou)  to  mahaud.  Mahaud  is  an  adjective  formed 
from  the  proper  name  Mahault,  which  was  in  the 
fifteenth  century  the  name  given  to  the  clumsy  bird, 
the  goose,  as  the  fox  is  called  Renard.  It  is  simply  a 
variant  form  of  the  name  Mathilde. — London  Times, 
review  of  Dauzat's  V  Argot  de  la  Guerre  (1918). 

MARIE-LOUISE 

Another  and  older  term  for  one  of  these  youngsters  is  a 
Marie-Louise.  Strictly  speaking,  he  is  a  recruit  called 
up  ahead  of  the  usual  time,  but,  of  course,  this  is  the 
case  in  respect  to  all  the  new  classes  mobilized  during 
the  present  war.  The  word  goes  back  to  the  marriage 
of  Napoleon  with  Marie-Louise  of  Austria  in  1810, 
when  France  had  exhausted  her  men  and  was  calling 
up  boys  for  the  army. — Arthur  H.  Warner,  New  York 
Times,  Oct.  7,  1917. 

MARMITE 
See  copain. 

MARRAINE 

The  marraine  really  needs  a  chapter  to  herself.  She  and 
her  adopted  filleul  have  furnished  the  great  jokes  and 
the  prettiest  romances  of  the  war.  It  all  began  ser- 
iously and  even  sadly  enough.  The  pathetic  condition 
of  the  soldiers  from  the  invaded  Northern  districts 
of  France  appealed  immediately  to  the  warm  hearts 
of  the  Frenchwomen.     .     .     .     WTiy  should  not  their 


120  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

countrywomen  who  sympathized  with  their  suffering, 
mental  and  physical,  each  adopt  as  a  godson  some 
soldier  from  the  North,  and  treat  him  as  a  true  god- 
mother should?  So  proposed  a  Paris  paper.  The 
idea,  once  started,  spread  like  wild-fire.  .  .  .  The 
idea,  of  course,  was  captivating  to  the  men  in  the 
trenches,  and  the  scheme  has  now  developed  into  the 
most  picturesque  flirting  system  ever  conceived. — 
Gelett  Burgess,  Century,  Sept.,  1916. 

Our  War  Department,  in  stopping  the  correspondence 
of  soldiers  with  strangers,  had  excellent  reasons.  The 
institution  of  godmothers  does  have  the  dangers  that 
were  pointed  out,  and  in  our  Army  the  need  is  lacking. 
But  conditions  are  not  everywhere  the  same.  A  Bel- 
gian officer  told  me  that  10,000  extra  marraines  would 
make  an  essential  difference  in  the  morale  of  the  lonely 
little  Belgian  Army,  many  of  whose  members,  shut  off 
for  four  years  from  their  families,  feel  wholly  friendless 
in  the  world. — Norman  Hapgood,  Leslie's,  Sept.,  1918. 

MASSIF 

The  war  continues  to  enrich  our  vocabulary.  News 
from  France  that  the  Allies  have  captured  the  entire 
** massif"  of  Lassigny  will  cause  another  searching 
of  dictionaries,  by  which  it  will  be  revealed  that  a  massif 
is  a  mountainous  group  of  connected  heights,  some- 
times isolated  and  sometimes  forming  part  of  a  larger 
mountain  system,  more  or  less  clearly  marked  off  by 
valleys.  The  word  is  French  in  origin,  but  has  been 
adopted  without  change  by  English  and  American 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  121 

geologists  and  physical  geographers. — New  York 
Times,  Sept.  17,  1918. 

Military  authorities  agree  that  the  fall  of  the  St. 
Gobain  massif,  recognized  as  the  greatest  natural 
defense  on  the  west  front,  would  precipitate  a  disaster 
which  would  utterly  split  the  German  armies  and  prob- 
ably throw  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  enemy  into  a 
trap  from  which  there  would  be  no  escape. — Baltimore 
Star,  Oct.  11,  1918. 

Montdidier  tombe,  Humbert  et  Debeney  ont  pousse 
en  direction  du  massif,  repute  si  longtemps  irre- 
ductible,  entre  Roye  et  Lassigny. — Nouvelles  de  France, 
Aug.  29,  1918,  p.  163. 

MAXIMALIST 

See  Bolsheviki. 

MENSHEVIKI* 

Bolsheviki  is  the  name  of  a  party  of  Russian  revolu- 
tionists and  means  "much  more."  Mensheviki  is  also 
Russian  and  means  "less,"  "minority";  in  other  words, 
the  party  that  wants  less  than  the  Bolsheviki. — Literary 
Digest,  July  13,  1918. 

MINIMALIST 

See   Bolsheviki. 

MINNIE 

Fritz  had  a  large  and  varied  assortment  of  "minen- 
werfer"  with  which  to  entertain  us  at  all  hours,  day  and 

JSce  BoUlieriki. 


m  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

night.  A  good  many  people,  even  among  the  soldiers 
themselves,  think  that  Minenwerfer  or  "Minnie"  for 
short,  is  the  name  of  the  projectile  or  torpedo,  while 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  the  instrument  which  throws 
it;  a  literal  translation  being  "minethrower." — Captain 
Herbert  W.  McBride,  The  Emma  Gees  (1918). 

MINNOW-MINDED 

The  minnow-minded,  those  who  swim  about  in  the 
shallows  of  superficiality,  say  France  is  imperialistic 
and  attribute  her  relative  decline  to  the  greater  industry 
and  energy  of  the  Germans,  or  to  the  low  French  birth 
rate,  or  to  a  dozen  other  French  deficiencies. — New 
York  Tribune,  April  10,  1919. 

MIR 

He  [the  Russian  peasant]  grew  up  in  the  Mir,  or  village 
commune,  which  owned  the  inadequate  stock  of  com- 
mon land  as  its  collective  proprietor  and  parcelled  it 
out  periodically  in  thin  and  hungry  strips  among  its 
families.  The  institution  is  as  ancient  as  our  common 
Indo-European  origin,  and  it  has  formed  all  the  peas- 
ant's conceptions  of  property.  To  him  the  immoral, 
the  antisocial  thing  is  to  seize  and  possess  and  bequeath 
more  land  than  one  can  till. — H.  N.  Brailsford,  New 
Republic,  October  30,  1917. 

MONKEY  MEAT 

We  received  the  French  ration,  a  part  of  which  was 
canned  beef  shipped  from  Madagascar.    It  had  a  pe- 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  123 

culiar  taste  which  our  men  did  not  like.  They  called 
it  "monkey  meat"  and  it  soon  became  known  by  that 
name  through  our  Army. — Major-General  Omar 
Bundy,  Everybody's,  March,  1919. 

MOOCHER 

Many  "charges"  have  been  "hurled"  at  Miss  Jean- 
nette  Rankin,  at  present  a  Representative  in  Congress 
from  Montana,  but  the  height  and  depth  of  political 
"slangwhanging"  in  the  State  can  best  be  judged  from 
the  Fergus  County  Argus,  which  includes  her  among 
"political  moochers." 

In  the  old  English  slang,  to  "mouch"  was  to  steal,  to 
prig.  If  one  doesn't  quite  understand  the  process  of 
importation,  one  sees  how  "moucher"  passes  into 
"grafter."  Nobody  has  accused  or  could  accuse  Miss 
Rankin  of  having  been  that.  As  a  politician,  she  may 
have  been  brought  into  temporary  political  alliances 
with  thinkers  of  the  Nonpartisan  League  school,  found 
guilty  of  "graft"  by  politicians  of  the  opposing  school. 
So  far  as  can  be  made  out  from  Fergus  County,  however, 
she  is  a  political  "moocher"  and  "one  of  the  most 
despicable  of  politicians,"  because  she  is  a  bolter.  If  a 
"  moocher"  is  only  a  bolter,  it  is  a  title  of  honour  and  re- 
spect which  Miss  Rankin  can  accept  with  pride. — New 
York  Times,  Oct.  10,  1918. 

MOULDY 

A  fairly  extensive  knowledge  of  torpedoes  is  necessary 
in  order  to  pass  for  Sub-Lieutenant,  and  so  we  already 


124  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

knew  all  about  a  "mouldy"  as  they  are  called  in  naval 
vernacular. — From  Snotty  to  Sub,  by  "Heandi,"  London, 
1918,  p.  118. 

MYSTERY  SHIP 

London,  Nov.  30  (Associated  Press) . — One  of  the  most 
exciting  chapters  of  the  war  against  U-boats  is  a  series 
of  accounts  of  notable  engagements  between  British 
decoy  ships  and  the  submarines,  made  public  by  the 
British  Admiralty.  While  the  whole  story  of  the  part 
played  by  these  decoy  vessels,  "mystery  ships"  or  "Q" 
craft  has  not  been  revealed,  it  is  evident  that  several 
of  them  were  used  to  lure  the  undersea  craft  to  destruc- 
tion.—New  York  Times,  Dec.  22,  1918. 

She's  the  plaything  of  the  Navy,  she's  the  nightmare  of 
the  Hun, 
She's  the  wonder  and  the  terror  of  the  seas, 
She's  a  super-censored  secret  that  eludes  the  prying  sun 
And  the  unofficial  wireless  of  the  breeze; 
She  can  come  and  go  unseen 
By  the  foredoomed  submarine; 
She's  the  Mystery-Ship,  the  Q-Boat,  if  you  please. 
— Punch,  London,  Sept.  4,  1918. 


N 


NANCY 

The  NC  type  of  seaplane  becomes  at  once  the  "Nancy" 
of  aircraft  in  popular  parlance.  And  what  with  this 
coinage  and  "blimps"  and  "hop  offs,"  linguistic  in- 
ventiveness goes  on  augmenting  the  vocabulary  in  the 
time-honoured  way  which  is  the  despair  of  purists  and 
precisians.— N.  Y.  World,  May  17,  1919. 


NAPOO,  NAPU 

"Napoo" — probably  a  contraction  of  "II  n'y  a  plus" — 
is  what  Tommy  says  when  he  has  finished  his  meal — 
enough,  no  more.  When  the  meaning  is  extended,  it 
becomes  "dead"  or  "gone  away.": — Atlantic  Monthly, 
Feb.,  1917. 

"But  if  there  ain't  many  bullets  buzzin'  about  'ere  now 
you  can  bet  there  was  not  long  ago.  There's  a  pretty 
big  crowd  of  ours  still  lying  na-poo-ed  out  there." — 
Boyd  Cable,  Grapes  of  Wrath  (1917). 

Everywhere  the  new  had  gone  ahead  of  me.  Soldiers, 
assembled  in  the  fields  for  morning  parade,  were 
flinging  their  steel  helmets  up  and  cheering.     As  they 

125 


126  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

marched  through  villages  they  shouted  out  to  civilians, 
"Guerre  fini,  guerre  fini,  boche  napoo." — Philip  Gibbs, 
New  York  Times,  Nov.  14,  1918. 

NAPOO-FEENEE 

It  is  amusing  to  consider  the  linguistic  acquisitions  of 
Mr.  Thomas  Atkins — whose  strictly  limited  vocabulary 
was  long  said  to  contain  only  a  single  adjective — when 
he  is  forced  into  close  contact  with  the  soldiers  and 
civilians  of  France.  But  of  "il  n'y  a  plus;  c' est  fini" 
he  has  made  "  napoo-feenee,"  which  to  him  means  "we 
are  out  of  it  entirely." — Brander  Matthews,  Mun- 
setfs  Magazinet  April,  1919. 

NAPPER 

When  up  against  a  Prussian  regiment  it  is  a  case  of 
keep  your  napper  below  the  parapet  and  duck.  .  .  . 
A  lance-corporal  in  the  next  platoon  was  so  enraged 
at  the  Captain's  death  that  he  chucked  a  Mills  bomb 
in  the  direction  of  the  noise  with  the  shouted  warning 
to  us:  "Duck  your  nappers,  my  lucky  lads." — Arthur 
Guy  Empey,  Over  the  Top  (1917). 

NC  BOAT 

The  Navy  Department  made  public  to-day  a  detailed 
description  of  the  NC  boats  in  which  it  was  stated  that 
they  were  "a  wholly  original  American  development," 
the  design  having  been  initiated  in  the  fall  of  1917  by 
Rear-Admiral  David  W.  Taylor,  chief  constructor  of 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  127 

the  navy.  The  plan  for  a  transatlantic  flight,  it  was 
said  originally  was  formed  as  a  war  measure  to  get 
these  giant  aircraft  to  the  scene  of  submarine  opera- 
tions "had  the  German  submarines  gained  the  upper 
hand  in  1918." 

The  "NC"  designation  stands  for  "Navy-Curtiss," 
indicating  that  they  are  the  joint  production  of  the 
department  and  the  Curtiss  Engineering  Corporation. 
They  are  not  freak  boats  designed  for  record-breaking, 
the  statement  emphasizes,  but  a  regular  naval  design 
capable  of  60  miles  an  hour  speed  on  the  surface  of  the 
sea  or  90  miles  in  air. — Baltimore  Sun,  May  15,  1919. 

NENETTE  AND  RINTINTIN 

But  what  has  been  the  most  characteristically  French 
effect  of  the  visiting  gothas?  The  production  of  a  pair 
of  ridiculous  little  knitted  dolls  held  together  by  a 
string  of  worsted ! 

You  see  them  all  over  Paris.  Their  names  are  Nenette 
and  Rintintin.  They  are  sometimes  half  an  inch  high 
and  sometimes  as  much  as  an  inch.  They  are  made  in 
the  brightest  colours,  they  hang  in  all  the  shop-win- 
dows, they  appear  in  the  pages  of  the  humorous  papers, 
and  they  are  absolute  protection  against  air-raids! — 
Roy  S.  Durstine,  Scribner's  Monthly,  Nov.,  1918, 
p.  559. 

NEO-COPPERHEADS 

Racine,  Wis.,  Sept.  27. — "Neo-copperheads,"  Huns 
within  the  gates  of  America  who  are  preaching  dis- 


128  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

loyalty  to  the  country's  cause,  and  German-American 
newspapers  which  continue  their  anti-American  propa- 
ganda were  denounced  by  Theodore  Roosevelt  in  an 
address  he  delivered  here  to-night  at  the  annual  meeting 
of  the  League  of  Wisconsin  Municipalities. — Baltimore 
Sun,  Sept.  28,  1917. 

V  NEUTRALITY 

The  basis  of  neutrality,  gentlemen,  is  not  indifference; 
it  is  not  self-interest.  The  basis  of  neutrality  is  sym- 
pathy for  mankind.  It  is  fairness,  it  is  good  will,  at 
bottom.  It  is  impartiality  of  spirit  and  of  judgment. 
I  wish  that  all  of  our  fellow  citizens  could  realize  that. — 
President  Wilson,  New  York,  April  20,  1915. 


NEWSFILM 

Some  day  we  shall  have  daily  newsfilms  just  as  we 
have  our  daily  newspapers.  WTe  shall  be  able  to  walk 
into  a  theatre  or  schoolhouse  or  library  and  see  as  well 
as  read  the  news  of  yesterday  in  motion  pictures.  When 
sending  films  by  telegraph,  cable,  or  wireless  becomes 
commercially  practicable  (and  the  demand  will  be  met 
if  it  persists),  it  will  be  possible  to  sit  in  an  auditorium 
or  visitorium  in  New  York  or  San  Francisco,  in  London 
or  Calcutta,  and  see  on  the  screen  the  actual  happen- 
ings of  the  day  before  on  the  other  side  of  the  earth. — 
Thomas  A.  Edison,  Educational  Film  Magazine,  N.  Y., 
Jan.,  1919. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  129 

NITROBYRONEL 

This  explosive  is  now  being  tested  for  use  by  aviators 
and  submarine  chasers.     Nitrobyronel  blows  a  chamber 
twice  as  great  as  that  caused  by  TNT  (trinitrotoluol) 
until  now  the  undisputed  Colossus  in  that  field.     .     . 
—New  York  Times,  Aug.  18, 1918. 

NITZCHEVO,  NITCHEVO 

"Nitzchevo,"  it  does  not  mattery  never  mind,  that  word 
is  the  curse  of  Russia.  Russia  is  burning!  "Nitz- 
chevo!" The  people  are  killed!  "Nitzchevo!"  The 
others  are  starving !  "Nitzchevo ! " — Scribner's  Monthly, 
Nov.,  1918. 

Bismarck  had  an  unbounded  admiration  for  Russia, 
holding  her  to  be  mighty,  resourceful,  immortal.  If 
now  alive,  he  would  say  that  the  Czar's  resignation,  the 
mad  antics  of  the  Bolsheviki,  and  the  economic  collapse 
of  Russia — all  that  is  "nitchevo." — New  York  Times, 
Dec,  1918. 

NIX,  BO 

"Comin'  fine  if  I  can  get  you  fellers  to  save  that  foot. 
She's  smashed  plenty.     If  you  can't — all  the  same." 
"We'll  run  you  right  in." 

"Nix,  bo,  not  me.  I'm  gettin'  past  all  right,  nothin' 
but  my  foot.     You  jest  lemme  be  here  and  git  busy 


130  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

with  them  guys  that's  hurt.     I'm  on  the  waitin'  list."- 
Association  Men,  Dec.,  1918. 


NO  BLOODY  BON 

The  great  word  of  the  Tommies  here  is  "No  bloody 
bon" — a  strange  mixture  of  French  and  English,  which 
means  that  a  thing  is  no  good.  If  it  pleases  them  it's 
Jake — though  where  Jake  comes  from  nobody  knows. — 
Coningsby  Dawson,  Carry  On  (1917). 

NO  MAN'S  LAND 

Colonel  E.  D.  Swinton,  of  the  British  Army,  is  pop- 
ularly known  as  the  father  of  the  tank,  as  he  had  the 
distinction  of  raising  and  commanding  the  first  tank 
unit.  To  Colonel  Swinton  also  is  attributed  the  in- 
troduction of  the  expression  "No  Man's  Land"  in 
alluding  to  the  strip  between  the  first-line  trenches. — 
New  York  Herald,  Oct.  28,  1917. 

No  spoken  word,  no  gifted  pen  or  brush 

Of  painter  using  pigments  mixed  in  Hell, 

May  e'er  depict  the  horror  and  the  hush 

That  lie  there  when  the  guns  have  ceased  their  yell. 

— W.  Stonehold,  No  Man's  Land. 

"No  Man's  Land"  holds  no  terrors  for  the  feathered 
tribe.  Birds  build  their  nests  in  the  corners  of  the  wire 
entanglements,  and  sing  merrily  in  the  midst  of  the 
deafening  cannonades.  In  fact,  neither  the  strafing 
of  the  Hun  nor  the  replies  of  the  Allies'  guns  seem  to 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  131 

have  any  effect  on  the  wild  life  of  the  war-stricken 
country. — Stories  of  Americans  in  the  World  War  (1918), 
p.  12. 

NON-STOP 

London,  June  16  (Associated  Press). — London  cele- 
brated to-day  the  achievement  of  the  two  British 
airmen  who  yesterday  completed  the  first  non-stop 
transatlantic  flight,  meanwhile  preparing  for  a  formal 
reception  to  the  air  victors,  Captain  John  Alcock  and 
Lieutenant  Arthur  W.  Brown. — N.  Y.  Times,  June  17, 
1919. 

NOUS  AUTRES,  NOUS  RESTERONS 

"Be  steady,  my  children!"  called  out  the  captain.  "The 
boats  are  for  you!  We  officers  will  remain!"  Perfect 
discipline  reigned  to  the  last  moment. 

Not  an  officer  survived  the  disaster  [of  the  Leon 
Gambetta,  April  26,  1915].  Out  of  a  total  complement 
of  821  souls,  684  brave  officers  and  men  were  lost.  The 
conduct  of  every  man  of  the  lost  cruiser  had  been  heroic, 
that  of  their  officers  magnificent.  "Nous  autres, 
nous  resterons!"  will  forever  remain  the  watchword 
of  the  French  navy. — Robert  W.  Neeser,  Scribner's 
Monthly,  Nov.,  1918,  p.  616. 


o 


OH  PIP* 

"Careful  now.  Keep  down.  If  they  spot  this  for  an 
Oh  Pip  they'll  shell  us  off  the  earth." — Boyd  Cable, 
Grapes  of  Wrath  (1917). 

OIL  SLICK 

Further,  the  submarine  when  running  close  beneath 
the  surface  leaves  what  is  known  as  an  "oil  slick." 
That  is,  the  oil  that  is  discharged  in  the  exhaust  floats 
on  the  top  of  the  water  in  telltale  streaks  or  blobs,  and 
where  there  is  an  oil  slick  there  also  is  likely  to  be  a 
destroyer;  pronto — and  the  merry  little  depth  charge 
goes  down,  in  the  hope  of  shaking  and  shattering 
Fritz. 

"Oil  slick"  is  American  terminology.  The  British 
Admiralty  did  not  approve  of  the  use  of  the  term  at 
first,  but  nobody  in  the  Admiralty  could  present  a 
better  descriptive  phrase,  so  now  it  is  officially  recog- 
nized, but  with  due  British  reservations.  After  the 
war  it  will  not  be  good  form. — Samuel  G.  Blythe. 
Saturday  Evening  Post,  Oct.  12,  1918. 


•See  Emma  Gee. 

132 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  133 

OLONA 

The  strongest,  most  durable  textile  fibre  in  the  world,  a 
native  of  our  island  territory  of  Hawaii,  will  be  a  can- 
didate for  introduction  in  the  fibre  markets  of  the 
nations  as  soon  as  Yankee  ingenuity  discovers  methods 
for  cultivating  and  working  it.  Olona  is  its  native 
name,  and  it  has  been  prized  by  the  islanders  for  gene- 
rations. Tests  have  shown  it  to  be  eight  times  as 
strong  as  ordinary  hemp.  .  .  .  Its  pliability  is 
remarkable,  and  its  durability  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  olona  fishing  nets  over  a  hundred  years  old  are 
still  used  by  Hawaiian  fishermen. — Literary  Digest, 
Nov.  30,  1918. 

ON  ITS  OWN,  ON  YOUR  OWN 

It  is  an  independent  versatile  institution  operating 
on  its  own  for  its  own  needs. — Samuel  G.  Blythe, 
Saturday  Evening  Post,  Nov.  2,  1918. 

Four  taps  meant,  "I  have  gotten  you  into  a  position 
from  which  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  extricate  you,  so 
you  are  on  your  own." — Arthur  Guy  Empey,  Over 
the  Top  (1917). 

ON  LES  AURA,  ON  LES  A 

Most  Parisians  cannot  yet  realize  in  its  entirety  the 
transformation  which  Foch's  leadership  has  wrought. 
They  are  too  close  to  the  facts. 

The  Allies  are  not  only  winning:  they  have  won.  "On 
les  aura!"     "We    shall    have    them!",  the   war   cry 


134  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

of  the  poilus  for  four  long  years,  has  been  suddenly 
changed  into  a  world-resounding,  "On  les  a!"  ("We've 
got  them!"). — Cable  from  Paris  to  New  York  Times, 
Oct.  19,  1918. 

ON  THE  BLINK 

Putting  a  E/'-boat  "on  the  blink"  with  a  revolver  shot 
from  an  airplane  was  the  extraordinary  feat  of  an 
anonymous  British  aviator. 

To  hit  the  lens  of  a  periscope  from  an  aeroplane  in 
flight  is  an  accomplishment,  to  say  the  least;  but  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  luck,  and  luck  indeed  favoured  me  to  a 
most  remarkable  degree  in  this  instance. — Literary 
Digest,  May  17,  1919. 

ON  THE  LOOSE 

Bolshevism  is  a  massing  and  turmoil  of  the  criminal 
elements  of  society  let  out  of  jail  and  on  the  loose. 
— Franklin  H.  Giddings,  Independent,  Jan.  18, 1919. 

Soldiers  generally  think  of  themselves  as  men  who, 
when  their  feelings  are  aroused,  are  privileged  to  use 
violence;  and  military  discipline  is  necessarily  so  re- 
pressive that  when  men  are  temporarily  released  from 
it  they  naturally  go  on  the  loose. — New  Republic, 
Dec,  1918. 

ORIENTATOR 

Washington,  April  16. — The  Army  Air  Service  is 
experimenting  with  an  "orientator"  designed  to  give 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  135 

flyers  and  prospective  flyers  all  of  the  motions  and 
bumps  with  which  they  meet  during  the  most  strenu- 
ous "stunt"  flying  in  the  air. 

A  demonstration  of  the  orientator  was  given  at  the 
Air  Service  to-day  before  a  group  of  officers,  employees, 
and  newspaper  men. 

The  contrivance  consists  of  a  section  of  the  fuselage 
of  a  modern  airplane  mounted  on  steel  tubing  in  such  a 
way  as  to  permit  it  to  loop  the  loop  forward  and  back- 
ward, turn  completely  over  from  side  to  side,  spin  in  a 
circle  with  the  machine  on  an  even  keel,  assume  a 
"bank"  for  a  turn  in  either  direction,  a  nose  dive,  and 
other  stunts. 

It  is  intended  to  give  flying  men  confidence  by  demon- 
strating in  a  safe  way  all  of  the  many  motions  to  which 
they  are  subject  in  flight  under  battle  or  other  condi- 
tions.— Baltimore  Sun,  April,  17,  1919. 

OUR  GOD 

That  expression,  "our  God,"  has  some  very  interesting 
connotations.  In  many  respects  it  is  the  keynote  of 
the  primitive  paganism  which  has  produced  the  tribal 
psychology  of  the  German  people  of  to-day.  Many  of 
the  Kaiser's  speeches,  and  the  discourses  of  his  minis- 
ters in  the  Reichstag  and  Prussian  Diet,  have  wound 
up  with  a  grandiloquent  reference  to  "our  God,"  who 
will  see  them  through  to  victory,  or  to  "the  old  German 
God,"  who  confounds  their  mutual  enemies.  It  is 
the  concept  of  a  distinctly  tribal  divinity,  not  a  uni* 


136  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

versal  god.  Their  God  is  not  the  same  one  who  pre- 
sides over  the  destinies  of  their  enemies.  It  is  not  the 
God  of  all  mankind  before  whom  they  lay  their  cause, 
basing  their  hope  for  success  and  for  divine  assistance 
upon  the  inherent  justice  of  that  cause.  No,  it  is  the 
god  of  a  tribe  who  fights  with  them  and  for  them,  who 
holds  up  their  right  arm  in  battle  and  punishes  the 
wicked  enemy. — Philip  Hemenway  Chadbourn, 
Atlantic  Monthly,  Nov.,  1918. 

OUTFIT 

I  have  yet  to  see  a  drunken  American  private  in  Paris. 
For  the  most  part  they  are  to  be  seen  in  groups  of  twos 
or  threes,  "gangs"  or  "outfits"  as  they  call  themselves, 
strolling  about  the  streets. — Elizabeth  Frazer,  Satur- 
day Evening  Post,  Nov.  2,  1918. 

OVER  THE  TOP* 

It  is  generally  the  order  for  the  men  to  charge  the 
German  lines.  Nearly  always  it  is  accompanied 
by  the  Jonah  wish,"  With  the  best  o'  luck  and  give  them 
hell." — Arthur  Guy  Empey,  Over  the  Top  (1917). 

He  pleaded  that  those  who  went  over  the  top  in  bond 
drives  and  in  giving  money  to  support  the  war  relief 
work  again  go  over  the  top  in  the  cause  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God. — Daily  News,  Greensboro,  N.  C,  March  13, 
1919. 

OZZIE 
See  Aussie. 


*See  the  jump-off. 


PACIFISM,  PACIFIST 

Gaston  Moch,  long  an  active  French  peaceworker, 
supplies  the  most  definite  information  available  as  to 
the  origin  of  the  word.  In  an  open  letter  to  William 
Howard  Taft,  President  of  the  League  to  Enforce 
Peace,  dated  from  Neuilly-sur-Seine,  May,  1917,  he 
says: 

The  words  "pacifism"  and  "pacifist"  were  proposed 
about  fifteen  years  ago  by  Emile  Arnaud.  I  opposed 
them,  finding  them  badly  formed  by  the  addition  of 
suffixes  "ism"  and  "ist"  to  a  root  "pacif,"  which  exists 
in  no  language.  But  they  responded  to  a  need  so 
that  they  were  rapidly  adopted,  and  I  could  not  but 
support  them. 

Taking  these  words  as  a  cue,  I  went  back  through  the 
literature  and  found  that  the  word  "pacifist"  was  first 
generally  used  in  titles  in  the  French  periodical  La 
Paix  par  le  Droit  in  1904.  Earlier  than  that,  discussion 
of  what  then  came  to  be  called  the  "mouvement  paci- 
fiste"  had  referred  to  the  "mouvement  pacifique." — 
Denys  P.  Myers,  New  York  Times,  March  23,  1918. 

We  who  are  working  for  international  relations  founded 
on  justice  and  democracy  repudiate  the  name  "  pacifist" 

137 


138  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

in  its  present  interpretation.  The  words  "pacifist" 
and  "pacifism"  came  from  Europe  years  ago  in  good 
standing,  and  in  their  original  sense  stood  for  world 
organization  and  the  final  abolition  of  war.  They 
were,  however,  never  satisfactory  to  most  of  the 
American  workers  because  of  their  passive  sound  and 
capacity  of  being  misconstrued. 

Recently  these  words  have  been  made  to  stand  for 
qualities  both  weak  and  bad — qualities  from  which  in 
their  original  meaning  they  were  as  far  removed  as 
patriotism  is  from  disloyalty.  The  vast  majority  of 
members  of  peace  societies  are  as  remote  from  "paci- 
fism" when  interpreted  as  cowardice,  sedition,  and 
treason,  as  are  workers  for  righteousness  from  pro- 
moters of  unrighteousness. — Independent,  Nov.  16, 1918. 

We  have  often  wondered  what  the  newspapers  and  the 
politicians  mean  by  talking  about  pacifists.  Who  are 
the  pacifists?  Mr.  Arthur  Henderson  was  generally 
reckoned  a  pacifist,  but  in  his  latest  speech  he  advocates 
"unconditional  surrender"  by  the  Central  Empires. 
We  do  not  believe  there  are  a  thousand  pacifists  in  the 
kingdom.  .  .  .  Any  British  or  French  Govern- 
ment which  proposed  to  make  a  premature  peace 
would  not  live  an  hour. — Saturday  Review,  London, 
Oct.  26,  1918. 

What  I  am  opposed  to  is  not  the  feeling  of  the  pa- 
cifists, but  their  stupidity.  My  heart  is  with  them, 
but  my  mind  has  a  contempt  for  them. — President 
Wilson,  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  Nov.  12, 1917. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  139 

PADRE 

You'll  be  pleased  to  know  that  we  have  a  ripping  chap- 
lain or  Padre,  as  they  call  chaplains,  with  us.  He 
plays  the  game,  and  I've  struck  up  a  great  friendship 
with  him. — Coningsby  Dawson,  Carry  On  (1917). 

PAN  AM 

Panam  [Panama-Eldorado]  has  now  completely  re- 
placed the  familiar  Pantruche  as  the  Parisian's  name  for 
Paris.     Dauzat's  U  Argot  de  la  Guerre  (1918). 

PARAVANE 

Soon  after  the  British  squadron  started  the  "para- 
vanes" were  dropped  overboard.  These  devices  are 
shaped  like  tops  and  divert  any  mines  which  may  be 
encountered,  for  the  vessels  were  now  entering  a  mine- 
field.—New  York  Times,  Nov.  21, 1918. 

Paravanes  and  the  gear  for  handling  them  were  per- 
fected during  the  first  two  years  of  the  war  at  the  dock- 
yard at  Portsmouth,  England,  and  in  some  quarters 
they  are  still  known  as  the  Burney  gears,  after  Com- 
mander Burney,  of  the  British  Navy,  the  inventor. — 
International  Marine  Engineering,  New  York,  April, 
1919. 

PARLOR  BOLSHEVISM 

There  is  so  much  "parlor  Bolshevism"  in  our  midst 
to-day,  so  much  ignorant  and  irresponsible  talk  about 
socialism,  "labor  and  capital,"  etc.,  that  it  behooves 


140  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

the  thoughtful  to  consider  where  all  this  intemperate 
thinking  and  agitating  is  leading. — Sara  Norton, 
New  York  Times,  April  6,  1919. 

PARLOR  BOLSHEVISTS 

He  [Mr.  Roosevelt,  in  The  Great  Adventure]  takes 
occasion  to  castigate  particularly  "parlor  Bolshevists," 
those  self-styled  intellectuals  who  play  with  treason 
under  the  name  of  internationalism. — Scribner's  Maga- 
zine, Dec,  1918. 

J  PASS  THE  BUCK 

He  [Major  General  James  G.  Harbord]  did  not  "pass 
the  buck,"  as  they  say  in  the  army,  which  means  that 
you  shift  the  responsibility  to  another  fellow.  The 
phrase  which  is  particularly  applicable  to  the  army 
system  in  peace  time  probably  originated  in  the  old 
poker-playing  days  of  the  frontier.  It  is  possible  to 
keep  "passing  the  buck"  in  a  circle  for  a  long  time  if 
nobody  finds  "openers." — Frederick  Palmer,  Col- 
lier's, April  19,  1919. 

PEACE  WITHOUT  VICTORY 

Fortunately  we  have  received  very  explicit  assurances 
on  this  point.  .  .  .  They  imply,  first  of  all,  that 
it  must  be  a  peace  without  victory.  It  is  not  pleasant 
to  say  this.  I  beg  that  I  may  be  permitted  to  put  my 
own  interpretation  upon  it  and  that  it  may  be  under- 
stood that  no  other  interpretation  was  in  my  thought. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  141 

I  am  seeking  only  to  face  realities  and  to  face  them 
without  soft  concealments.  Victory  would  mean  peace 
forced  upon  the  loser,  a  victor's  terms  imposed  upon  the 
vanquished.  It  would  be  accepted  in  humiliation, 
under  duress,  at  an  intolerable  sacrifice,  and  would 
leave  a  sting,  a  resentment,  a  bitter  memory  upon 
which  terms  of  peace  would  rest,  not  permanently, 
but  only  as  upon  quicksand.  Only  a  peace  between 
equals  can  last.  Only  a  peace  the  very  principle  of 
which  is  equality  and  a  common  participation  in  a  com- 
mon benefit.  The  right  state  of  mind,  the  right  feeling 
between  nations,  is  as  necessary  for  a  lasting  peace  as 
is  the  just  settlement  of  vexed  questions  of  territory 
or  of  racial  and  national  allegiance. — President 
Wilson,  Senate,  Jan.  22,  1917. 

President  Wilson's  address  to  the  Senate  on  January 
22  aroused  animated  comment  alike  in  the  belligerent 
countries  and  in  the  United  States.  The  Entente 
nations  took  vigorous  exception  to  the  phrase  "peace 
without  victory,"  and  the  Teutonic  Powers,  while 
rejoicing  in  that  aspect,  looked  with  disfavour  upon  the 
President's  suggestion  of  autonomy  for  all  nationalities, 
notably  for  the  Poles. — New  York  Times  Current  His- 
tory, March,  1917. 

The  book  [The  Foreign  Policy  of  Woodrow  Wilson, 
1913-1917,  by  Edgar  E.  Robinson  and  Victor  J.  West] 
must  be  especially  recommended  to  those  casual  read- 
ers and  superficial  thinkers  who,  allowing  themselves  to 
be  unduly  influenced  by  headlines  in  newspapers  and 
the  flippant  comment  of  "the  man  in  the  street,"  still 


142  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

sneer  about  such  matters  as  certain  phrases  used  by 
President  Wilson  at  various  times — "too  proud  to 
fight,"  "peace  without  victory,"  and  that  dealing  with 
the  aims  of  the  belligerents. — New  York  Times  Book 
Review,  Jan.  C,  1918. 

PELMANISM 

So  ignorant  is  the  world  of  its  greatest  men  that  it 
was  only  a  day  or  two  ago  that  we  learned  that  Pel- 
manism  was  invented  by  a  Mr.  Ennever.  Pelmanism 
was  not  really  invented  twenty  years  ago  by  Mr. 
Ennever,  but  three  hundred  years  ago  by  Francis 
Bacon,  the  Viscount  St.  Alban.  Bacon  invented  a 
system  of  inductive  experiments  by  adopting  which  he 
declared  that  all  men  might  become  equally  learned 
and  efficient — " exaequat  fere  omnia  ingejiia,"  it  makes 
all  brains  almost  equal,  said  he  of  his  system.  .  .  . 
Let  us  admit  at  once  that  there  is  no  harm  in  Pel- 
manism; there  may  even  be  some  good.  But  when  we 
see  the  Pelman  Institute  spending  weekly  sums  in 
advertising  their  wares  which  cannot  be  far  short  of 
£5,000,  or  £250,000  a  year,  we  know  that  a  very  large 
number  of  people  must  be  buying  those  wares,  or  the 
business  would  soon  stop. — Saturday  Review,  London, 
Feb.  8,  1919.  ~ 

PENGUIN 

First  of  all,  the  student  is  put  on  what  is  called  a  roller. 
It  is  a  low-powered  machine  with  very  small  wings. 
It  is  strongly  built  to  stand  the  rough  wear  it  gets,  and 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  143 

no  matter  how  much  one  might  try  it  could  not  leave 
the  ground.  The  apparatus  is  jokingly  and  univer- 
sally known  as  a  Penguin,  both  because  of  its  humorous 
resemblance  to  the  quaint  arctic  birds  and  its  inability 
in  common  with  them  to  do  any  flying. — James  R. 
McConnell,  Flying  for  France  (1916). 

The  penguins,  of  course,  are  part  of  the  Royal  Air  Ser- 
vice. They  are  the  birds  that  cannot  fly. — Hamilton 
Holt,  Independent,  Dec.  14,  1918. 

PEP 

King  George  knew  of  the  deeds  of  some  of  the  ofEcers 
and  that  led  him  to  speak  of  the  great  debt  the  British 
Empire  owed  to  all  its  colonials. 

"And  the  Americans,"  continued  the  King,  "are  very 
wonderful.  It  is  an  inspiration  and  an  earnest  of  victory 
simply  to  look  at  them.  Their  great  height,  their  per- 
fect physical  fitness,  their  fresh  young  faces,  and  their 
boundless  enthusiasm  are  very  stimulating  to  us  who 
have  had  to  endure  four  years  of  the  brunt  and  the 
horror  of  war.  What  the  Americans  have  really  done 
for  us  is,  perhaps,  best  expressed  in  their  own  idiom. 
They  have  'put  pep  into  us.'  They  have  given  to  us 
and  to  the  French  of  their  pep  and  we  know  now  that 
we  cannot  lose  this  war." — New  York  Times,  Aug.  tlO, 
1918. 

PERMISSION,  PERMISSIONNALRE 

It  has  become  an  unwritten  law  that  when  her  poilu 
comes  from  the  front  on  permission,  the  marraine  has 


144  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

the  privilege  of  either  receiving  him  or  refusing  to  see 
him.  .  .  .  Regarding  those  same  permissionnaires 
who,  since  the  spring  of  1915,  have  been  familiar  sights 
on  the  streets  of  Paris,  the  trench  journals  have  much 
to  say — those  slouching,  weary,  shop-window  gazing, 
muddy,  bearded  men  with  their  musettes  slung  over 
their  shoulders,  with,  apparently,  nowhere  to  go,  and 
not  much  desire  to  go  anywhere  except  to  sleep. — 
Gelett  Burgess,  Century,  Sept.,  1916. 

As  I  had  just  returned  from  "permission"  to  Aix-les- 
Bains,  I  had  sufficient  reserve  strength  to  read  the 
whole  of  your  letter  at  one  sitting  .  .  .  The  day 
starts  at  8  a.  m.  usually,  when  we  "  permissionnaires  "  re- 
luctantly but  firmly  separate  ourselves  from  our  downy 
couches. — Letter  from  G.  T.  Jenkins,  A.  E.  F.,  Evening 
Sun,  Baltimore,  Nov.  13, 1918. 

PERSUADER 

A  persuader  is  Tommy's  nickname  for  a  club  carried  by 
the  bombers.  It  is  about  two  feet  long,  thin  at  one  end 
and  very  thick  at  the  other.  The  thick  end  is  studded 
with  sharp  steel  spikes,  while  through  the  centre  of  the 
club  there  is  a  nine-inch  lead  bar  to  give  it  weight  and 
balance. — Arthur  Guy  Empey,  Over  the  Top  (1917). 

PETROGRAD 

September  1,  1914.  Name  of  St.  Petersburg  changed 
to  Petrograd;  other  cities  with  German  names  would 
have  them  Russianized. — New  York  Times  Current 
History,  Jan.  23,  1915. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  145 

PILL  BOX 

T.  Atkins  was  the  first  to  call  them  "pill  boxes."  The 
name  has  stuck. 

"Pillboxing"  well  describes  the  new  system  of  fighting 
the  Germans  have  been  forced  to  adopt  on  the  Western 
front,  because  of  the  terrific  artillery  pounding  they  are 
receiving  at  the  hands  of  the  British. 

The  "pill  box"  system  is  one  which  artillery  instruc- 
tors in  the  United  States  may  well  study,  because  it  is 
one  the  American  troops  undoubtedly  will  encounter 
when  they  reach  the  actual  fighting  front. 

The  "pill  boxes"  are  hardly  visible  above  the  ground 
and  usually  are  located  in  cellars  of  wrecked  homes  on 
reinforced  shell  craters.  They  are  constructed  at  night. 
Wooden  frames  are  carried  forward  and  set  up.  In 
the  darkness  soldiers  bring  forward  pails  of  cement  and 
fill  the  frames.  When  possible,  iron  bars  are  used  to 
reinforce  the  concrete. 

The  cement  dries  and  hardens  quickly,  and  when  fin- 
ished presents  a  solid  yard  of  reinforced  concrete  in 
all  directions.  In  these  shelters  machine-gun  crews 
and  quotas  of  40  front-line  reserves  are  safe  from  any 
shelling  except  a  direct  hit  from  a  10-inch  high-explosive 
shell. — Floyd  Gibbons,  New  York  Tribune ,  Sept.  9, 
1917. 

PINARD 

Thus,  for  instance,  pinard,  wine,  was  all  but  unknown 
in  Paris  before  the  war,  yet  it  is  now  perhaps  the  most 


146  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

famous  word  in  the  whole  soldier  vocabulary.  Pas 
de  pinard,  pas  de  poilu.  The  origin  of  the  word  is  not 
far  to  seek.  The  second  syllable  is  an  orthodox  ending, 
and  pinaud  is  the  name  of  a  well-known  small  Bur- 
gundy grape. — London  Times,  review  of  Dauzat's 
Argot  de  la  Guerre,  (1918). 


PIOU-PIOU 

Whatever  be  the  historical  derivation  of  "poilu,"  it  is 
certain  that  the  average  Frenchman  uses  the  term  in 
its  literal  sense  to  indicate  one  whose  beard  is  unshaven 
and  whose  hair  is  unshorn — in  other  words,  a  man  who 
has  been  long  enough  at  the  front  to  become  acclimated. 
The  word  did  not  come  into  general  use  until  some 
months  after  the  war  began.  The  slang  term  for  a 
private  of  the  line  at  the  outset  of  the  conflict  was 
"piou-piou." — Arthur  H.  Warner,  New  York  Times, 
Oct.  7,  1917. 

It  is  midnight,  Mademoiselle  and  good  friend,  and  in 
order  to  write  to  you  I  have  just  removed  my  white 
gloves.  (This  is  not  a  bid  for  admiration.  The  act 
has  nothing  of  the  heroic  about  it;  my  last  coloured 
pair  adorn  the  hands  of  a  poor  foot-soldier — piou-piou — 
who  was  cold). — Maurice  Barres,  The  Undying  Spirit 
of  France  (1917). 

PIQUE 

See  chandellc. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  147 

PLUGSTREET 

London,  September  5. — The  famous  Ploegsteert  village, 
in  Flanders,  two  miles  north  of  Armentieres,  has  been 
taken  by  the  British,  Field  Marshal  Haig  reported 
to-day. 

Ploegsteert  village  and  wood  have  been  the  scene  of 
some  of  the  bitterest  fighting  of  the  entire  war.  Thou- 
sands died  in  battles  around  Ploegsteert  during  the  late 
1914  and  the  1915  campaigns,  and  there  was  stubborn 
struggling  there  last  year.  Ploegsteert  is  known  to 
British  soldiers  everywhere  as  "Plugstreet." — Dis- 
patch, Sept.  5,  1918. 

POILU 

Poilu  is  a  word  that  only  half  pleases.  It  pleases  be- 
cause it  designates  those  whom  all  France  loves  and 
admires,  but  it  seems  not  to  respect  them  enough;  it 
has  a  touch  of  the  animal.  Besides,  the  word  was  not 
born  of  this  war.  It  has  long  been  in  use  in  and  around 
French  barracks.  It  was  one  of  those  thousands  of 
words  that  live  a  precarious  life  in  the  margins  of  dic- 
tionaries. Littre  writes:  "Poileux,  an  old  term  of 
contempt."  It  was  Balzac*  (the  discovery  is  not  mine) 
who,  in  1832,  in  "The  Country  Doctor,"  rehabilitated 
these  two  syllables,  and  for  the  first  time  seems  to  have 
given  them  the  generous,  vigorous,  and  cordial  sense 
that  we  see  in  them  to-day.     He  used  the  word  once, 

•Balzac  uses  the  word  not  only  in  Le  MSdecin  de  campagne  (1833)  but  also  in  Le  Pin 
Goriot  (18341 


148  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

then  let  it  drop  and  thought  of  it  no  more. — Maurice 
Barres,  New  York  Times  Current  History,  Sept.,  1916. 

Selon  Balzac,  done,  poilu  *  signifie  la  quintessence  de  la 
hardiesse,  de  l'energie,  de  la  resolution.  Un  journal 
du  front,  le  Poilu  sans  poil,  donne  une  definition  pleine 
et  savoureuse  des  iniberbes  poilus  qui  combattent  pour 
le  beau  pays  de  France. — A.  Marinoni,  Modern  Lan- 
guage Notes,  Baltimore,  Md.,  June,  1917. 

POLYPHONIC  PROSE 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  "polyphonic  prose"  is, 
in  a  sense,  an  orchestral  form.  Its  tone  is  not  merely 
single  and  melodic  as  is  that  of  vers  libre,  for  instance, 
but  contrapuntal  and  various. — Miss  Amy  Lowell, 
Introduction  to  Can  Grande's  Castle  (1918). 

The  volume  [Can  Grande's  Castle]  is  composed  of  four 
long  semi-declamatory,  semi-narrative  poems,  all  of 
them  in  "polyphonic  prose."  .  .  .  Now,  with  its 
many  changes  of  rhythm  and  subtleties  of  rhyme,  it  is 
practically  a  new  form;  dignified,  orchestral,  flexible. 
It  is  a  form  of  almost  infinite  possibilities;  it  can  run  the 
gamut  of  tempi  and  dynamics  on  one  page;  it  can  com- 
bine the  thunder  of  great  oratory  with  the  roll  of  blank 
verse  and  the  low  flutes  of  a  lyric.  If  Miss  Lowell  has 
done  nothing  else,  she  has  enriched  English  as  well  as 
American  literature  with  a  new  and  variable  medium 
of  expression. — Louis  Untermeter,  The  New  Era 
in  American  Poetry  (1919). 

•See  piou-piou. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  149 

POMELO 

Grapefruit  is  a  popular  name  for  the  edible  fruit  of  Citrus 
decnmana,  now  widely  used  in  the  dietary  of  American 
households.  Although  the  designation  "pomelo"  has 
been  adopted  in  scientific  circles  in  this  country,  and 
the  fruit  is  termed  "pomelow"  by  the  English  of  Ceylon 
and  India,  the  now  familiar  expression  grapefruit,  se- 
lected in  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  fruit  commonly 
occurs  on  the  trees  in  large  clusters  somewhat  resem- 
bling those  of  grapes,  is  likely  to  be  retained.  The 
name  "shaddock,"  which  was  likewise  employed  by 
some  a  few  decades  ago,  is  all  but  abandoned  now. — 
Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association,  Chicago, 
Quoted  in  Literary  Digest,  Aug.  10,  1918. 


POSTE  DE  SECOURS 

I  suppose  you  know  what  these  posts  are:  they  are 
simply  well  constructed  and  equipped  "dugouts," 
which  are  situated  right  up  next  to  the  front.  The 
wounded  are  brought  in  from  the  trenches  to  these 
places  by  the  "brancardiers"  [stretcher-bearers],  and 
we  take  them  from  there  to  hospitals  farther  back. 
Some  of  the  "postes"  are  remarkably  well  fixed  up  in- 
side, with  electric  lights,  kitchens,  dining-rooms,  and 
bed-rooms  for  the  "blesses"  [wounded]. — R.  Ran- 
dolph Ball,  letter  University  of  Virginia  Alwnni 
News,  Nov.,  1918. 


150  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

PRE-DREADNOUGHT 

Pre-dreadnought  battleships  differ  from  dreadnought 
battleships  in  that,  instead  of  carrying  all  big  guns  and 
torpedo  defence  guns,  they  carry  some  big  guns  and 
some  smaller  or  intermediate  battery  guns,  thus  taper- 
ing down  to  the  torpedo  defence  guns.  .  .  .  Both 
pre-dreadnought  battleships  and  armoured  cruisers  are 
discredited  as  shown  by  the  fact  that  no  more  are  being 
built. — Commander  C.  C.  Gill,  Naval  Power  in  the 
War  (1914-1918).! 

PREPAREDNESS 

When  the  convention  of  1916  was  drawing  near  I  asked 
him  [Colonel  Roosevelt]  if  he  thought  he  had  a  chance 
of  the  nomination.  "Not  the  least  in  the  world,"  he 
said.  "If  I  had,  I  killed  it  by  my  tour  of  the  West 
advocating  preparedness  and  Americanism." — Charles 
Willis  Thompson,  New  York  Times,  Jan.  7,  1919. 

President  Wilson,  in  his  message  to  Congress  at  the 
opening  of  the  session  in  December,  and  in  many 
speeches  since  then,  is  on  record  as  believing  that  "pre- 
paredness" is  the  paramount  issue. — American  Review 
of  Reviews,  May,  1916. 

Perhaps  when  you  learned,  as  I  dare  say  you  did  learn 
beforehand,  that  I  was  expecting  to  address  you  on  the 
subject  of  preparedness,  you  recalled  the  address  which 
I  made  to  Congress  something  more  than  a  year  ago, 
in  which  I  said  that  this  question  of  military  pre- 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  151 

paredness  was  not  a  pressing  question.  But  more  than 
a  year  has  gone  by  since  then  and  I  would  be  ashamed 
if  I  had  not  learned  something  in  fourteen  months. 
The  minute  I  stop  changing  my  mind  with  the  change 
of  all  the  circumstances  of  the  world,  I  will  be  a  back 
number. — President  Wilson,  New  York,  Jan.  27, 
1916. 

Preparedness  is  the  theme  of  the  hour.  The  news- 
papers and  magazines  discuss  little  else.  We  have 
preparedness  processions  and  preparedness  conven- 
tions; preparedness  drills  and  preparedness  camps. 
Most  of  us  accept  military  preparedness  as  an  unfor- 
tunate necessity  in  this  stage  of  the  world's  develop- 
ment. No  true  citizen  would  neglect  any  measure 
for  the  security  of  the  nation.  I  shall,  therefore,  not 
argue  for  military  preparedness.  But  the  application 
of  the  preparedness  idea  does  not  cease  there. — Dr. 
Charles  W.  Dabney,  Baccalaureate  address,  Univer- 
sity of  Cincinnati,  June  4,  1916. 


PROFITEER 

A  new  type  of  profiteer  has  been  introduced  by  war- 
conditions,  and  we  owe  his  discovery  to  Food-Admin- 
istrator Hoover,  according  to  Washington  press  dis- 
patches, in  which  Mr.  Hoover  points  out  that  while 
wholesale  prices  are  lower,  retail  prices  are  going  up 
instead  of  down.  The  New  York  Wall  Street  Journal 
rejoices  in  the  curbing  of  wholesale  profiteering,  which 
is  "no  more  unpatriotic  and  dangerous  and  not  nearly 


152  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

so  mean  as  profiteering  by  retail." — Literary  Digest, 
Nov.  3,  1917. 

PRUNEAU 

See  copain. 

PUP  TENT 

The  pup  tent,  as  most  know,  is  the  little  dog-kennel- 
like tent  formed  by  buttoning  together  the  two  shelter 
halves,  carried  by  two  soldiers.  It  is  so  small  that  one 
has  to  go  down  on  hands  and  knees  to  crawl  into  it, 
but  it  makes  comfortable  quarters  for  two  when  they 
are  once  inside.  When  one  crawls  into  a  little  pup  tent 
at  six  o'clock  night  after  night,  because  no  lights  are 
allowed  and  it  is  dangerous  to  be  prowling  about  in  the 
dark  on  the  edges  of  slippery  shell  holes,  and  remains 
there  through  the  long  hours  of  the  night  with  a  soldier 
by  one's  side,  one  gets  very  near  to  the  heart  of  that 
boy. — A.  C.  Wyckoff,  Biblical  Review,  N.  Y.,  April, 
1919. 

PUSSY  FOOT 

The  Colonel  was  consumed  with  a  desire  to  force  "pre- 
paredness and  Americanism"  on  the  Republican  Party 
which  till  then  had  been  "pussy-footed,"  to  use  the 
Colonel's  own  word.  Its  National  Convention  was 
approaching.  It  was  evidently  in  imminent  danger  of 
taking  a  "pussy-footed"  position  on  the  war,  which 
would  have  damned  it  forever.  The  Colonel  knew  that 
that  would  be  the  effect  of  any  such  attitude,  but  the 
Republican  leaders  did  not,  and  were  blind  to  the  thun- 
derstorm ahead. — New  York  Times,  Jan.  7,  1919. 


Q 


"Q"  BOAT* 

Among  the  anti-submarine  measures  initiated  and 
encouraged  by  Mr.  Churchill  and  Lord  Fisher  were  the 
"Q"  boats,  the  mystery  attaching  to  which  has  now 
been  dispelled  by  Sir  Eric  Geddes.  .  .  .  The  "Q" 
boat  may  be  briefly  defined  as  a  decoy.  The  stratagem 
or  artifice  is  as  old  as  sea  warfare.  .  .  .  Many 
yarns  have  been  spun  about  the  achievements  of  the 
"Q"  boat  commanders,  and,  as  must  be  generally 
known,  several  V.  C.'s  and  other  decorations  have  been 
awarded  for  gallant  deeds  performed  in  this  branch  of 
the  Service.  Some  of  the  stories  told  of  their  doings 
may  be  apocryphal,  but  the  Admiralty  can  soon  remedy 
this  by  putting  out  authentic  reports,  and  these  dra- 
matic and  exciting  episodes  of  sea  warfare  will  lend  them- 
selves better  than  more  prosaic  work  of  the  Fleet  to  the 
deft  handling  of  practiced  litterateurs  like  Mr.  Kipling 
and  Sir  Henry  Newbolt.  The  novel  and  stirring  in- 
cidents of  "Q"  boat  warfare  which  the  Admiralty  rec- 
ords contain  will  assuredly  be  as  full  of  thrills  as  the 
Tales  of  The  Trade. — Army  and  Navy  Gazette,  August 
10,  1918. 


♦See  htuh-hiuh  tkip. 

153 


154  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

The  use  of  the  so-called  "Q"  ships  or  mystery  ships 
comprises  an  interesting  phase  of  anti-submarine  war- 
fare. The  service  of  these  requires  both  courage  and 
skill.  A  mystery  ship  may  be  defined  as  a  naval  sub- 
marine destroyer  disguised  as  a  merchantman.  The 
usual  type  is  a  merchant  ship,  mounting  carefully  con- 
cealed guns  and  manned  by  a  trained  naval  crew  dressed 
in  civilian  clothes.  The  object  is  to  decoy  the  enemy 
submarine  into  easy  range  and  then  suddenly  unmask 
the  guns  and  destroy  her  by  rapid  and  accurate  gun- 
fire before  she  has  a  chance  to  submerge. — Commander 
C.  C.  Gill,  Naval  Power  in  the  War  (1914-1918). 


R 


RADADOU 

Sometimes  they  [Nenette  and  Rintintin]  have  an  off- 
spring who  is  called  either  Radadou  or  simply  Gus. 
You  aren't  supposed  to  have  a  Radadou  or  a  Gus  with 
your  Nenette  and  Rintintin  until  you  have  been  in  Paris 
for  some  time,  and  have  safely  lived  through  many 
raids. — Roy  S.  Durstine,  Scribner's  Monthly,  Nov., 
1918,  p.  559. 

RADIO  SPEECH 

Wireless  telephony  was  a  fact  before  we  entered  the 
war — and  a  thoroughly  American  development.  Radio 
speech  was  transmitted  between  United  States  Navy 
vessels  at  sea  in  1915  and  across  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Eiffel  Tower  in  Paris,  and  over  the  Pacific  to  the  Ha- 
waiian Islands  in  the  same  year. — James  H.  Collins, 
Oscillator,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  Feb.  22,  1919. 

RAFALE 

See  chandelle. 

RAFFLES* 

A  "Raffles"  pulled  off  a  new  stunt  last  night  at  the 
home  of  Dr.  H.  H.  Flood.     Entering  the  front  door,  he 

•See  The  Amateur  Cracksman  (1899)  and  Mr.  Justice  Raffles  (1909)  by  E.  W.  Hor- 
nung. 

155 


156  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

took  a  half  dozen  electric  bulbs  from  their  sockets  and 
then  proceeded  to  ransack  a  bookcase.  .  .  .  The 
police  of  Catonsville  were  notified  and  hurried  to  the 
house,  but  no  trace  of  the  robber  could  be  found. — 
Baltimore  Sun,  Jan.  14,  1919. 


RAGPICKER 

If  "The  Ragpickers"  becomes  the  accepted  slang  for 
the  newly  found  Field  Salvage  Corps  of  the  United  States 
Army,  there  may  be  trouble  ahead,  for  the  spruce  young 
officers  now  going  abroad  to  command  the  newest  field 
auxiliary  of  the  fighting  men  don't  fancy  the  name. 
"Naturally,  it  is  the  business  of  the  Hun  to  try  to  make 
each  ragpicker's  life  so  miserable  that  he  will  want  to 
retire,"  says  the  San  Antonio  Light,  and  proceeds  to  give 
this  general  view  of  the  Field  Salvage  Corps'  business: 
A  battlefield  after  a  fierce  engagement  is  a  veritable 
treasure-trove.  To  be  sure  the  eye  of  a  novice  would 
fail  to  distinguish  it  as  such ;  but  the  more  discriminating 
eye  of  an  Allied  ragpicker  would.  Therefore,  the  ap- 
parent wastage  of  war  is  clearly  manifest.  The  wounded 
are  removed  before  the  ragpickers  begin  work. — Literary 
Digest,  Sept.  14,  1918. 


RED  TRIANGLE 

The  Red  Triangle  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  is  now  a  familiar 
symbol  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  The  announcement 
has  been  made  recently  that  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  has  adopted 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  157 

as  its  symbol  the  Blue  Triangle,  with  the  generous  ap- 
proval of  the  British  Y.  W.  C.  A.  and  the  International 
Committee  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  This  insignia  is  already 
familiar  to  the  French  people,  where  it  has  been  used 
ever  since  the  American  Y.  W.  C.  A.  began  its  war 
work  in  France.  It  has  long  symbolized  the  British 
Y.  W.  C.  A.  Thus  the  work  that  the  Christian  women 
of  our  land  are  doing  in  this  great  war  will  be  officially 
recognized  through  the  symbol  of  the  Blue  Triangle 
and  the  horizon-blue  uniform  worn  by  the  Y.  W.  C.  A. 
workers. — Christian  Observer,  Louisville,  Ky.,  Aug.  14, 
1918. 

General  Allenby  said  he  felt  "that  one  of  the  biggest 
and  best  things  that  will  come  out  of  the  war  is  a  sympa- 
thetic understanding  between  the  American  and  British 
peoples,  an  understanding  that  will  go  a  long  way  to- 
ward guaranteeing  the  peace  of  the  world  in  the  future." 
We  talked  until  midnight  on  my  last  night  with  him, 
and  I  was  much  impressed  by  the  tributes  he  paid  to 
the  work  of  the  Red  Triangle  with  his  troops.  From 
the  day  the  British  Army  poured  across  the  Suez  Canal 
and  commenced  its  march  across  the  Sinai  peninsula,  it 
has  never  been  deserted  by  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association. 

WThen,  after  long  months,  the  Palestine  push  began,  the 
Red  Triangle  men  were  stationed  at  every  casualty 
station  in  the  front-line  area.  When  the  wounded 
troops  began  to  stream  back  they  found  waiting  for 
them  such  simple  comforts  as  cigarettes,  chocolate, 
sandwiches,  matches,  and  daily  papers,  and  these  were 


158  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

again  and  again  distributed  t<>  them  during  their  weary- 
ing, painful  journey  hack  to  the  base  hospitals,  150 
miles  away. — Charles  W.  Wiiitehair,  Baltimore 
Evening  Sun,  Oct.  18,  1918. 

REVANCHE 

Tt  is  sometimes  said  that  among  the  causes  of  the  war 
was  an  alleged  French  desire  for  "revenge."  The  fact 
is  that  In  rt  ranche,  as  used  in  the  recent  past,  contains 
no  idea  of  vindictiveness.  "It  means,  in  fact,  nothing 
more  than  'the  return  game,'  as  when  whist-players 
who  have  just  won  a  rubber  ask  their  opponents  if  they 
would  like  'revenge'."  (Quoted  from  Translation  from 
French  by  Graeme  Ritchie  and  J.  M.  Moore). — Athen- 
aeum, London,  Oct.,  1918. 


See  'penguin. 
See  Eatables. 


ROLLER 
ROODIBOYS 
ROSALIE 


The  derivation  of  this  may  interest  your  readers.  The 
bayonet  was  first  made  at  Bayonne,  of  which  town 
St.  Rosalie  is  the  patron  saint.  The  French  soldier 
poet,  Theodore  Botrel,  has  sung  the  charms  of  Rosa- 
lie.— Lieut.  A.  Beresford-Horslet,  Saturday  Review, 
London,  Sept.  9,  1916. 

Remarkable,  however,  among  the  new  words  is  Rosalie, 
the  bayonet.     It  is  by  far  the  most  common  term  for 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  159 

that  weapon  in  use  among  the  soldiers,  and  yet,  accord- 
ing to  Mr.  Dauzat,  it  is  definitely  known  to  have  been 
originated  by  one  who,  in  the  view  of  the  French  soldier, 
is  reckoned  among  the  bourreurs  du  crane.  Since  any 
one  who  writes  from  the  rear  about  or  for  the  front  be- 
longs, in  the  sensitive  judgment  of  the  soldier,  to  that 
category,  it  implies  no  great  disrespect  to  Mr.  Theodore 
Botrel  to  declare  that  the  success  of  his  invention — 
Rosalie  was  launched  in  a  song  of  his  which  appeared  in 
the  Bulletin  des  Armies  in  the  autumn  of  1914 — is  little 
short  of  miraculous.  It  is  the  only  creation  of  the 
civilian  which  has  gained  currency  among  the  troops. — 
Ixmdon  Times,  review  of  Dauzat's  L' Argot  de  la  Guerre 
(1918). 


SAB-CAT 

The  principal  emblems  of  the  I.  W.  W.  are  a  black  cat 
and  a  wooden  shoe.  With  these  the  organization 
speckles  its  literature.  The  cat  is  known  to  the  breth- 
ren as  a  "sab-cat."  Nobody  knows  why  the  cat. 
"Sab,"  of  course,  is  an  abbreviation  of  sabotage,  which 
word  designates  the  chief  means  whereby  the  I.  W.  W- 
hope  to  gain  their  ends.  And  sabotage  comes  from  the 
French  word  sabot,  a  shoe.  Hence  the  wooden  shoe. — 
Literary  Digest,  April  19,  1919. 

A  sab-cat  and  wobbly  band, 

A  rebel  song  or  two; 
And  then  we'll  show  the  parasites 

Just  what  the  cat  can  do. 

First  stanza  of  The  Kitten  in  the  Wheat,  a  favourite 
I.  W.  W.  song. 

SALLY  BOOZE 
See  eatables. 

SAMMY 

Mr.  Punch,  ever  reluctant  to  take  credit  to  himself, 
feels  nevertheless  bound  to  say  that  the  suggestion  of 

160 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  161 

the  name  "Sammies"  for  our  American  Allies  appeared 
in  his  columns  as  long  ago  as  June  13th.  On  page  384 
of  that  issue  (after  quoting  The  Daily  Neivs  as  having 
said,  "We  shall  want  a  name  for  the  American  'Tom- 
mies' when  they  come;  but  do  not  call  them  'Yankees'; 
they  none  of  them  like  it")  he  wrote:  "As  a  term  of 
distinction  and  endearment,  Mr.  Punch  suggests  'Sam- 
mies'* after  their  uncle." — Punch,  London,  Aug.  1, 1917. 

The  question  became  sufficiently  acute  last  month  to 
receive  the  official  cognizance  of  the  chief  of  staff  at 
Washington.  "If  there  is  one  thing  that  the  American 
soldier  dislikes  in  France,"  said  General  March  to  the 
newspaper  men,  "it  is  to  be  called  a  'Sammy.'  No- 
body seems  to  know  just  how  the  term  started,  but  on 
seeing  the  strong,  virile  men  from  here  over  there,  the 
British  rejected  it  at  once,  and  they  call  the  American 
troops  'Yanks'." 

Of  course  it  should  have  been  Yanks  from  the  very 
beginning.  Yanks  from  South  Norwalk,  Conn.;  Yanks 
from  Birmingham,  Ala.;  Yanks  from  Milwaukee,  Wis. 
"Yanks"  has  the  sound  and  the  fitness  of  things,  and 
"Sammies"  is  an  incubated  monstrosity.  But  it  is 
precisely  at  the  beginning  of  our  experiences  over  there 
that  this  artificial,  lisping  cognomen  was  out  of  place. 
After  the  Ourcq  and  the  Somme  it  no  longer  matters. 
The  men  who  broke  the  Prussian  Guard  could  very  well 
afford  to  be  called  Sammies,  or  Percys,  or  Goldielocks, 
or  anything  similarly  and  exquisitely  tender  in  the 


The  suggested  derivation  from  nos  a  mil  does  not  deserve  consideration. 


162  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

style  of  Florence  Barclay. — Collier's,  Sept.  7,  1918, 
p.  16. 

SAUSAGE 

Not  long  ago  Norman  Prince  became  obsessed  with  the 
idea  of  bringing  down  a  German  "sausage,"  as  obser- 
vation balloons  are  called. — James  R.  McConnell, 
Flying  for  France  (1916). 

SCHAUFFOR 

The  word  "chauffeur"  was  eliminated,  and  there  were 
many  discussions  as  to  what  should  be  substituted. 
Many  declared  for  Kraftwagenfiihrer  or  "power- 
wagon-driver."  But  finally  the  word  was  Germanized 
as  "Schauffor." — James  W.  Gerard,  My  Four  Years 
in  Germany  (1917). 

SCHRECKLICHKEIT 

It  is  such  atrocities  as  these  which  are  meant  by  the 
two  war  expressions,  "unrestricted  U-boat  warfare" 
and  "f rightfulness"  (Schrecklichkeit),  which  the  Ger- 
mans have  added  to  the  dictionary  of  human  experi- 
ence.— Stories  of  Americans  in  the  World  War  (1918), 
p.  25. 

SCRAP  OF  PAPER 

Treaties  are  scraps  of  paper.  All  depends'upon  the 
manner  of  turning  them  to  account. — Bismarck.  See 
James  Brown  Scott's  A  Survey  of  International  Rela- 
tions Between  the  United  States  and  Germany  (1917), 
XLVII. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  163 

August  4,  1914,  the  British  ambassador  in  Berlin,  Sir 
Edward  Goschen,  justified  the  entrance  of  England  into 
the  war  chiefly  on  the  ground  that  Germany  had  vio- 
lated the  neutrality  of  Belgium,  which  Great  Britain 
was  pledged  by  treaty  to  defend.  In  a  dispatch  to  the 
British  Government  he  reported  a  conversation  with 
the  German  Chancellor,  Bethmann  Hollweg,  who  said 
that  "the  step  taken  by  His  Majesty's  Government 
was  terrible  to  a  degree;  just  for  a  word — 'neutrality/ 
a  word  which  in  war  time  had  so  often  been  disregarded 
— just  for  a  scrap  of  paper  Great  Britain  was  going  to 
make  war  on  a  kindred  nation  who  desired  nothing 
better  than  to  be  friends  with  her." — War  Cyclopedia, 
Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  1918. 

The  Peace  Conferences  at  The  Hague  have  sought  to 
diminish  the  evil  by  universal  agreement  upon  rules  of 
action.  The  rules  and  the  treaties  have  become 
"scraps  of  paper."  The  progress  of  democracy,  how- 
ever, is  dealing  with  the  problem  by  destroying  the 
type  of  Government  which  has  shown  itself  incap- 
able of  maintaining  respect  for  law  and  justice. — 
Elihu  Root,  The  Effect  of  Democracy  on  International 
Law  (1917). 

SEA-TANK 

The  application  of  the  "tank"  idea  to  marine  warfare 
seems  to  have  been  successfully  carried  out  by  the 
Italians  in  their  recent  raid  at  Pola,  where  they  de- 
stroyed by  this  means  a  large  Austrian  warship.  Just 
what  these  "sea-tanks"  are  is  not  yet  known  in  detail 


164  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

but  enough  is  understood  and  inferred  to  furnish  ma- 
terial for  a  descriptive  article  of  considerable  length 
contributed  by  H.  Winfield  Secor  to  The  Electrical 
Experimenter  (New  York,  September).  The  sea-tanks, 
Mr.  Secor  tells  us,  measure  about  40  feet  by  6,  and  are 
propelled  by  electricity.  They  are  provided  with  an 
endless  rotary  chain,  running  lengthwise  around  the 
vessel,  and  fitted  with  sharp  steel  barbs  or  knives 
which  can  cut  their  way  through  nets  and  other  ob- 
stacles just  like  their  prototypes,  the  land-tanks,  first 
used  so  effectively  by  the  British. — Literary  Digest, 
Sept.  14,  1918. 

SECTOR 

A  sector  is  that  portion  of  the  front  lines  occupied  by 
a  battalion.  The  battalions  are  the  units. — General 
Malleterre,  Harper's  Magazine,  Oct.,  1917. 

SELF-DETERMINATION 

National  aspirations  must  be  respected;  peoples  may 
now  be  dominated  and  governed  only  by  their  own 
consent.  "Self-determination"  is  not  a  mere  phrase. 
It  is  an  imperative  principle  of  action  which  statesmen 
will  henceforth  ignore  at  their  peril.  We  cannot  have 
general  peace  for  the  asking,  or  by  the  mere  arrange- 
ments of  a  peace  conference.  It  cannot  be  pieced 
together  out  of  individual  understandings  between 
powerful  states.  All  the  parties  to  this  war  must  join 
in  the  settlement  of  every  issue  anywhere  involved  in 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  165 

it;  because  what  we  are  seeking  is  a  peace  that  we  can 
all  unite  to  guarantee  and  maintain  and  every  item  of 
it  must  be  submitted  to  the  common  judgment  whether 
it  be  right  and  fair,  an  act  of  justice,  rather  than  a  bar- 
gain between  sovereigns. — President  Wilson,  Joint 
Session  of  Congress,  Feb.  11,  1918. 

SERBIA 

Serbia  has  taken  advantage  of  its  unusual  publicity  to 
spread  the  spelling  with  a  "b"  instead  of  the  former 
Servia.  This  change,  like  that  of  Petrograd,  has  met 
with  surprisingly  general  acceptance. — Harvey  J. 
Swann,  French  Terminologies  in  the  Making  (1918), 
p.  208. 

SHADDOCK 

See  pomelo. 

SHELL  SHOCK 

It  was  immediately  thought  that  these  conditions  were 
the  result  of  violent  concussions  occurring  in  the  vicin- 
ity, and  the  striking  but  misleading  term  of  "shell 
shock"  came  into  being.  The  name  was  applied  to  all 
queer  nervous  and  mental  symptoms,  and  these  patients 
suddenly  acquired  considerable  notoriety.  .  .  . 
The  nervous  symptoms  included  under  the  misleading 
and  forbidden  term,  "shell  shock,"  are  now  called  war 
neuroses,  or  simply  nervousness.  They  are  known  to 
be  similar  to  peace-time  neuroses,  and  they  are  peace- 
time neuroses  with  a  war-time  colouring. — Frederick 
W.  Parsons,  Atlantic  Monthly,  March,  1919. 


166  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

SHIP-MINDED 

We  must  make  America  ship-minded.  We  are  so 
little  ship-minded  to-day  that  it  is  chiefly  the  diffi- 
culties of  operation  which  occupy  the  thoughts  of 
those  who  are  giving  any  thought  whatever  to  our 
merchant  marine  of  to-morrow. — Edward  N.  Hurley, 
National  Geographic  Magazine,  Sept.,  1918. 

SHIP  ONE'S  STRIPE 

Now,  in  peace-time,  in  order  to  "ship  one's  stripe"  it 
is  only  necessary  to  pass  an  oral  examination  in  navi- 
gation, and  an  oral  and  written  examination  in  sea- 
manship. 


After  the  exams,  we  had  become  Super-Snotties,  and 
as  such  not  required  to  do  any  of  an  ordinary  Mid- 
shipman's duties,  but  the  Commander  would  not  put 
us  on  to  watch-keeping  until  we  had  actually  "shipped 
our  stripes,"  so  we  had,  in  the  graceful  lingo  of  the  gun- 
room, absolutely  "stink  all"  to  do  for  nearly  three 
weeks,  and  could  go  ashore  every  day  if  we  pleased. — 
From  Snotty  to  Sub,  by  "Heandi,"  London  (1918). 

SHOCK  CAR 

The  Americans  cooperated  in  the  attack  on  Juvigny 
with  the  type  of  tanks  which  the  French  have  named 
"Chars  d'Assaut,"  or  shock  cars.  These  engines  of 
war  have  been  called  "armoured  infantry."     They  have 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  167 

all  the  suppleness  of  troops  afoot  and  they  advance 
readily  into  the  enemy's  positions,  dealing  death  with 
gruesome  profusion  from  their  quick-firers  and  cannon. 
One  of  these  cars,  manned  by  a  French  lieutenant, 
killed  200  Germans  before  Juvigny. — Associated  Press, 
Sept.  2,  1918. 

SHOCK  TROOP 

In  the  third  place,  "shock"  troops  composed  of  selected 
men  from  all  divisions  of  the  army  were  to  advance 
after  the  bombardment,  in  a  series  of  "waves."  When 
the  first  wave  had  reached  the  limit  of  its  strength  and 
endurance,  it  was  to  be  followed  up  by  a  second  mass  of 
fresh  troops,  and  this  by  a  third,  and  so  on  until  the 
Allies'  defense  was  completely  broken. — A  School  His- 
tory of  the  Great  War  (1918)  by  McKinley,  Coulomb, 
and  Gerson,  p.  142. 

SHOFAR 

Camp  Meade,  Md.,  Sept.  7. — For  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  the  country,  so  far  as  known,  the  Shofar,  or 
ram's  horn,  will  be  blown  in  a  United  States  Army  camp 
at  8  o'clock  to-night. 

That  Shofar  will.be  blown  in  the  Jewish  Welfare 
Building  here  at  Meade.  It  will  be  the  call  issued  to 
the  Jewish  soldiers  in  this  cantonment  to  take  part  in 
the  religious  exercises  attendant  upon  the  feast  of  the 
New  Year.  At  the  same  time  it  will  be,  in  accordance 
with  the  symbolism  of  the  Shofar,  a  call  to  sacrifice 
and  consecration  of  one's  self  to  the  highest  ideals, 


168  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

including  the  consecration  of  one's  life,  if  necessary,  to 
the  cause  of  patriotism  and  the  cause  of  America. — 
Baltimore  Evening  Sun,  Sept.  7, 1918. 

SHOW  PIGEON 

The  British  officers  marvelled  at  this  finickiness,  and 
at  times  thought  it  was  show  pigeon — done  especially 
for  the  benefit  of  visitors. — Samuel  G.  Blythe, 
Saturday  Evening  Post,  Nov.  2,  1918. 

SHUTTERS 

"How  can  the  airman  who  has  no  wireless  receive 
signals  from  the  ground?"  The  "shutters,"  strips 
of  coloured  canvas,  are  arranged  in  different  formations 
by  a  trained  Signal  Corps  squad,  and  the  air  pilot  flying 
overhead  can  read  them  from  a  height  of  two  or  three 
miles.— World's  Work,  Nov.,  1918. 

SIMS'S  CIRCUS 

From  the  train  window  approaching  the  base  I  ob- 
tained my  first  view  of  "Sims's  circus,"  as  the  [Amer- 
ican] flotilla  has  been  named  by  the  irreverent  ensign. — 
Herman  Whitaker,  Independent,  June  1,  1918. 

SINN  FEIN 

Some  of  the  more  radical  among  the  Irish  Home  Rule 
party  had  formed  an  organization  known  as  the  Sinn 
Fein  (shin  fan),  an  Irish  phrase  which  means  "for 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  169 

ourselves."  Their  aim  was  to  make  Ireland  an  inde- 
pendent nation.  The  leaders  of  this  group  got  into 
correspondence  with  persons  in  Germany  and  were 
promised  military  assistance  if  they  would  rebel  against 
England.  The  rebellion  broke  out  April  24,  1916, 
without  the  promised  help  from  Germany.  For 
several  days  the  rebels  held  some  of  the  principal  build- 
ings in  Dublin.  After  much  bloodshed  the  rebellion 
was  put  down,  and  Sir  Roger  Casement,  one  of  those 
who  had  been  in  communication  with  Germany,  was 
executed  for  treason. — A  School  History  of  the  Great 
War  (1918),  by  McKinley,  Coulomb,  and  Gerson,  p. 
142-143. 

SINKER 

The  humble  doughnut,  alias  the  cruller,  alias  the  fried 
cake,  alias  the  "sinker,"  finally  has  won  a  niche  among 
the  illustrious  in  the  Hall  of  Fame.  The  exact  date 
of  the  birth  of  the  doughnut  is  shrouded  in  mystery,  but 
it  surely  goes  a  long  way  back.  Because  of  the  hitherto 
modest  sphere  it  occupied  historians  have  given  it  but 
scant  attention,  but  now  that  it  has  gained  a  rank 
among  the  really  famous,  its  ancestry  is  sure  to  be  the 
subject  of  inquiry  and  it  may  be  ascertained  that  the 
progenitors  of  the  modern  "sinker"  date  back  to  the 
building  of  the  pyramids  or  thereabout. — Private 
John  Allen,  Leslie's  Weekly,  Oct.  19, 1918.  ' 

SKIPPER 

See  First  Luff. 


170  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 


SKIP-STOP 

The  skip-stop  plan  for  surface  cars,  suggested  by  the 
Federal  Fuel  Administration,  will  not  be  considered  by 
the  Public  Service  Commission  until  it  receives  a  report 
from  the  Union  Railway  Company,  which  has  had  the, 
plan  in  operation  for  about  two  weeks  on  several  lines 
in  the  Bronx. 

Public  Service  Commissioner  Whitney  said  yesterday 
that  the  commission  had  received.no  complaints,  and 
he  therefore  assumed  the  plan  of  stopping  cars  only 
once  in  two  blocks  was  practicable. — New  York  Times, 
Sept.  17,  1918. 

SKYOGRAPHER 

"Skyographers'*  have  also  gone  over.  They  are  men 
whose  work  is  to  decipher  or  interpret  photographs 
taken  from  aeroplanes.  A  picture  taken  from  a  swiftly 
moving  airplane  up  in  the  air  several  hundred  or  several 
thousand  feet  is  quite  different  from  one  taken  with  a 
,'itationary  camera  within  ten  feet  of  a  stationary  object. 
What  seems  to  the  untrained  eye  only  a  white  speck 
or  lines  that  cross  one  another  is  recognized  by  the 
skyographer  as  a  big  cannon  or  airdrome. — Stories 
of  Americans  in  the  World  War  (1918),  p.  52. 

SLACKER 

Of  all  the  new  words  that  the  war  has  given  us  "  slacker  " 
is  one  of  the  surest  to  survive.     Of  course,  the  word 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  171 

wasn't  new  in  England,  but  it  had  no  general  currency 
in  America  before  we  heard  it  applied  to  those  who  held 
back  from  recruiting.  The  Continent  (Chicago)  seizes 
upon  it  as  a  useful  whip  in  the  modern  religious  world. 
Jesus  knew  the  slackers,  says  the  writer,  and  he  enjoined 
upon  them  to  "let  your  loins  be  girded  about,  and  your 
lamps  burning,  and  be  ye  yourselves  like  unto  men  look- 
ing for  their  Lord." — Literary  Digest,  April  8,  1916. 

SLANT 

An  outstanding  religious  leader  has  constructed  another 
book,  Old  Truths  and  New  Facts,  to  deal  with  Prayer, 
the  Bible,  the  Church,  Missions,  and  Jesus  Christ  from 
the  slant  of  war  language. — Dial,  N.  Y.,  Nov.  2,  1918. 

SLUM 

With  the  American  Army  in  France,  September  3  (By 
Mail). — "It's  been  mostly  slum  for  the  last  couple  of 
weeks,"  was  the  way  the  Salvation  Army  sisters,  Miss 
Gladys  and  Irene  Mclntyre,  of  Mount  Vernon,  N.  Y., 
replied  to  the  question  as  to  whether  they  had  good  food 
at  the  front. 

"Slum"  is  army  stew.  The  sisters  could  have  had 
special  food,  a  fact  they  neglected  to  tell.  But  they 
refused  it  when  the  soldiers  were  denied  fresh  food. 
"Slum"  was  good  enough,  they  said. — Baltimore  Star, 
Oct.  7,   1918. 

SMILEAGE 

Although  the  Government  built  the  Liberty  theatres, 
no  money  was  provided  to  operate  the  circuit.     To 


172  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

raise  funds  to  enable  the  theatres  to  start  operations 
and  to  finance  companies  for  the  camp  circuit,  "smile- 
age"  books  containing  coupons  exchangeable  for  tickets 
were  placed  on  sale  to  the  public.  Smileage  sale  corres- 
ponds exactly  to  the  advance  sale  of  theatre  tickets — 
good  until  used. — Report  of  The  Chairman  on  Training 
Camp  Activities  to  the  Secretary  of  War  (1918). 

SMOKE  SCREEN 

Under  favourable  conditions  of  wind  and  position 
many  vessels  have  saved  themselves  from  torpedo 
attack  by  the  production  of  a  smoke  screen.  This 
may  be  formed  either  by  incomplete  combustion  of  the 
oil  used  for  fuel  by  most  naval  vessels,  or  it  may  be 
created  by  burning  chemicals,  such  as  phosphorus  and 
coal  tar,  or  mixtures  in  which  both  of  these  and  other 
materials  are  used. — The  Enemy  Submarine,  by  the 
U.  S.  Naval  Consulting  Board,  May  1,  1918. 

SNOTTY 

Now  the  derivation  of  this  inelegant  term  happened 
in  this  wise.  A  "snot  rag,"  as  every  schoolboy  knows, 
is  the  slang  term  for  a  pocket  handkerchief,  and  the  term 
"snotty,"  as  applied  to  midshipmen,  came  in  at  the 
time  when  their  Lords  Commissioners  of  the  Admiralty 
ordained  that  the  young  gentlemen  should  wear  three 
buttons  on  the  sleeves  of  their  full  dress  round  jackets. 
The  buttons,  according  to  certain  ribald  persons  who 
wished  to  cast  ridicule  upon  the  midshipmen,  were 
placed  there  to  prevent  their  wearers  from  putting 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  173 

the  sleeves  of  their  garments  to  the  use  generally  dele- 
gated to  pocket  handkerchiefs.  It  was  nothing  but  a 
libel,  of  course,  but  the  nickname  still  survives,  and  will 
survive  to  the  crack  o'doom. — "Taffrail,"  Carry  On! 
(1916). 

A  word  of  explanation  as  to  the  title  of  the  book  may  be 
desired  by  readers  unacquainted  with  naval  slang. 
"Snotty"  is  a  dreadful  word  of,  I  am  sure,  libellous 
origin!  But  it  is  pure  navalese.  "Middy"  is  not  a 
Service  term  at  all,  and  the  curly-haired  "Middy"  so 
dear  to  writers  of  fiction  and  comic  opera  has  no  ex- 
istence in  fact — he  is  a  regular  "Mrs.  Harris!" — From 
Snotty  to  Sub,  by  "Heandi,"  London,  1918,  IX. 


SOMEWHERE  IN  FRANCE 

The  war  has  enriched  our  language  with  many  new  ex- 
pressions, but  none  more  beautiful  than  that  of  "  Some- 
where in  France."  To  all  noble  minds,  while  it  sounds 
the  abysmal  depths  of  tragic  suffering,  it  rises  to  the 
sublimest  heights  of  heroic  self-sacrifice. — James  M. 
Beck,  Defenders  of  Democracy  (1917). 

"Somewhere  in   France" — we  know  not   where — he 

lies, 
Mid  shuddering  earth  and  under  anguished  skies! 
We  may  not  visit  him,  but  this  we  say: 
Though  our  steps  err  his  shall  not  miss  their  way. 
From  the  exhaustion  of  War's  fierce  embrace 
He,  nothing  doubting,  went  to  his  own  place. 


174  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

To  him  has  come,  if  not  the  crown  and  palm, 
The  kiss  of  Peace — a  vast,  sufficing  calm! — John  Hog- 
ben,  Spectator,  London,  Sept.  25,  1915. 


SOVIET 

A  soviet  is  a  new  chapter  in  government,  the  distinctive 
contribution  of  the  Russian  revolution  to  political 
organization. 

It  is  the  local  government  body  of  the  Russian  revolu- 
tion, a  sort  of  city  council  or  township  board.  The 
central  supreme  governing  body  is  the  All-Russian 
Congress  of  Soviets,  and  the  cabinet  there  chosen. 

Since  the  soviet  is  the  local  organization  of  the  peasants', 
workmen's  and  soldiers'  deputies,  only  these  classes 
vote  for  delegates.  That's  the  distinguishing  feature 
of  the  Soviets — they  represent  working-class  rule.  The 
aristocrats  and  middle  class  have  no  vote. 

In  any  district,  for  example,  the  workmen  of  each  shop 
and  trade  elect  a  delegate,  or  as  many  delegates  as  their 
numbers  entitle  them  to,  to  the  local  soviet.  So  with 
the  soldiers  and  so  with  the  peasants  in  the  section  sur- 
rounding the  city. 

But  the  shop  owners,  the  merchants,  the  bankers,  the 
lawyers,  the  land  owners  have  no  vote  and  no  repre- 
sentatives. They  have  been  disfranchised. — Btjbton 
Knisely,  Baltimore  Sun,  Sept.  2,  1918. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  175 

Several  subscribers  ask  us  for  "a  simple  definition  of 
soviet  and  Bolsheviki."  How  can  one  give  a  simple 
definition  of  anything  so  complex  and  indefinite  as 
Russian  politics?  But  we  will  do  the  best  we  can  to 
oblige.  A  soviet  is  the  executive  committee  of  a  labour 
union.  The  Bolsheviki  are  the  people  who  are  running 
the  Russian  Soviets.  The  former  is  a  kind  of  political 
machinery  derived  from  industrial  organizations.  The 
latter  is  the  particular  party  now  in  control  of  the  ma- 
chinery in  Russia.  It  is  the  same  difference  as  exists 
in  our  own  country  between  governmental  institutions 
and  political  parties. 

The  soviet  is  designed  to  sweep  aside  as  unnecessary 
all  such  things  as  kings,  presidents,  parliaments,  legisla- 
tures, courts,  cabinets,  capitalists,  landlords,  employees, 
armies,  nations,  classes,  and  boundary  lines.  We  may 
call  this  as  absurd,  as  impossible,  or  as  wicked  as  we 
please,  but  since  it  is  just  now  the  only  government 
of  a  hundred  million  Russians  and  fifty  million  Ger- 
mans we  are  obliged  to  try  to  understand  it. — Hamilton 
Holt,  Independent,  Dec.  14,  1918. 


SPAD 

Till  recently  the  French  pinned  their  faith  on  an  im- 
proved and  speedier  type  of  the  well-known  Nieuport, 
a  monoplane  upon  which  many  records  were  made  in 
the  early  days.  Still  faster  is  the  "Spad,"  a  tiny  bi- 
plane.— Bertram  W.  Williams,  Scientific  American^ 
Oct.  6,   1917. 


176  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

SPARTACANS,   SPARTACIDES,*   SPARTACITES, 
SPARTACUS  GROUP,  SPARTACUS  LEUTE 

A  mysterious  group  of  German  Bolsheviki  have  re- 
cently made  their  appearance  in  the  cable  dispatches 
from  Germany,  which  must  have  somewhat  puzzled 
the  American  reader.  This  is  the  Spartacus  group,  or 
Spartacides,  and  they  are,  we  are  told,  a  party  of  ex- 
treme Socialists,  led  by  Dr.  Liebknecht  and  Rosa 
Luxemburg,  who  wish  to  see  a  proletarian  autocracy 
replace  the  old  military  autocracy  in  the  Fatherland. — 
Literary  Digest,  Dec.  28,  1918. 

Why  Spartacides,  Spartacans,  or  whatever  they  are  to 
be  called?  Why,  indeed,  the  human  race  should  be 
afflicted  with  such  members  as  those  forming  the  Spar- 
tacus group — younger  brothers  of  the  raging  Bolsheviki 
— is  a  question  for  wise  men  to  ponder  over.  But 
the  question  why  the  followers  of  the  late  Dr.  Karl 
Liebknecht  and  Rosa  Luxemburg  should  of  all  desig- 
nations have  chosen  that  of  Spartacus  Leute,  or  Spar- 
tacus people,  is  easier  to  answer. 

It  appears  that  some  years  ago,  needing  a  pseudonym 
for  his  political  writings,  Dr.  Liebknecht  looked  about 
him  for  something  classic,  and,  bethinking  himself  of 
the  rebellious  gladiator  who  gave  the  Romans  so  much 
trouble,  thenceforth  signed  himself  "Dr.  Spartacus." 


*In  spite  of  adverse  criticism  the  word  is  properly  formed.  The  cide  of  Spartacide 
is  not  the  cide  of  insecticide.  The  initial  c  in  the  former  is  furnished  by  Spartac  {us), 
the  real  suffix  being  ide.  But  in  insecticide  the  suffix  is  cide,  meaning  destructive  of. 
The  word  Seleucidee  from  Seleucus  is  formed  exactly  as  Spartacides  from  Spartacus. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  177 

When  the  Kaiser's  downfall  gave  him  his  chance  to 
project  himself  into  the  limelight,  he  found  that  his 
own  name  lent  itself  ill  to  forming  the  name  of  a  party, 
whereas  "Spartacus"  might  do  well  enough.  Liter- 
ally, "Liebknecht"  means  "dear  knave."  One  can 
easily  see  that  a  band  of  hotheads  stuffed  with  half- 
baked  ideas  of  "freedom"  would  not  care  to  be  called 
knaves  of  any  kind. — Munsey,sf  March,  1919. 

In  Germany  the  Independent  Social  Democrats  and 
the  Spartacites  correspond  to  the  Bolsheviki  of  Russia 
and  they  have  exercised  their  power  through  the  same 
machinery,  the  Council  of  Workmen  and  Soldiers, 
known  in  Russia  as  Soviet  and  in  Germany  as  the 
Arbeiter  Soldatenrat. — Independent,  N.  Y.,  June  4, 
1919. 

THE  SPLASH 

See  spotting-board. 

SPLIT  TRAILER 

Central  France,  Sept.  5  (Correspondence  of  The 
Associated  Press). — American  ingenuity  is  fast  making 
itself  felt  in  the  construction  of  field  guns  in  the  vast 
workhouse  of  the  ordnance  branch  of  the  American 
Army  here. 

One  of  the  American  designs  which  has  won  strong 
favour  with  the  French  experts  is  the  "split  trailer," 
which  extends  back  of  the  gun  from  the  wheels  down  to 
the  ground.  From  the  earliest  days  of  gunnery  this 
trailer  has  been  a  single  piece.     But  the  Americans  have 


178  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

split  it  from  the  ground  up,  so  that  two  great  legs  spread 
out  backward  from  a  cannon.  The  results  have  been 
astonishing,  permitting  an  ordinary  field  piece  to  be 
elevated  to  80  degrees  or  almost  straight  up.  The 
American  design  has  now  been  adopted  as  the  standard 
French  model,  and  it  is  going  into  all  the  new  guns 
made  at  French  arsenals. — New  York  Times,  Sept. 
22,  1918. 

SPOTTER* 

They  will  not  all  be  "  spotters"  (the  men  who  telephone 
the  ranges  to  the  gun  crews),  but  their  vision  will  be 
surer  for  this  schooling,  and  besides,  it  is  wise  to  train 
them  so  that  they  can  exchange  stations  in  a  crisis  of 
an  engagement. — Ralph  D.  Paine,  The  Fighting 
Fleets  (1918),  p.  388. 

SPOTTING-BOARD 

Here  the  "spotting-board"  comes  into  play,  a  device  so 
entertaining  that  the  pupils  flock  around  it  out  of  school 
hours.  It  is  a  long  table  upon  which  the  ranges  are 
marked  by  lines  running  both  ways,  at  intervals  repre- 
senting a  hundred  yards.  At  one  end  is  a  square  of 
tin,  set  on  edge,  with  a  narrow  slit  cut  in  it,  and  a  shut- 
ter which  can  be  dropped  across  it. 

Upon  the  board  is  a  tiny  model  of  a  submarine  as 
seen  when  awash,  its  size  scaled  to  fit  this  miniature  bit 
of  ocean.     A  little  dab  of  cotton  glued  to  a  wooden  base 

•See  dummy  compost. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  179 

is  called  "the  splash,"  and  looks  very  much  like  the 
foam  kicked  up  when  a  shell  strikes  the  water.  The 
Navy  youth  who  is  learning  to  "spot"  takes  his  stand 
at  the  end  of  the  board  and  looks  through  the  slit  in  the 
square  of  tin.  A  comrade  lifts  the  shutter  and  lets  it 
drop,  merely  a  glimpse  of  the  surface  and  the  dot  of  a 
submarine.  The  pupil  estimates  the  distance  and  the 
deflection  right  or  left,  and  calls  out  the  shot. — Ralph 
D.  Paine,  The  Fighting  Fleets  (1918),  p.  387. 


SPURLOS  VERSENKT* 

He  was  merely  seeking  an  excuse  for  the  inhuman  con- 
duct he  planned.  The  order  "spurlos  versenkt" — 
to  be  sunk  without  leaving  a  trace — was  to  be  obeyed. — 
Stories  of  Americans  in  the  World  War  (1918),  p.  24. 

SQUEEKER 

How  can  Uncle  Sam  break  the  pigeons  he  buys  for 
service  in  France  of  their  instinct  to  return  to  the 
United  States?  He  cannot.  Once  a  homer  is  settled 
it  is  no  good  to  our  government  except  for  breeding 
purposes.  The  only  birds  useful  for  courier  purposes 
are  those  that  are  brought  into  service  before  they  are 
old  enough  to  settle.  These  are  eight  weeks  old  or  less, 
and  are  called  "squeekers." — Stories  of  Americans  in  the 
World  War  (1918),  p.  76. 


*0n  May  19,  1917,  Luxburg,  the  German  minister  at  Buenos  Aires,  sent  a  secret 
telegram  to  Berlin  advising  that  Argentine  steamers  be  "spared  if  possible  or  else 
sunk  without  leaving  a  trace." 


180  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

STAGGER 

Restaurants  close  [in  Washington]  at  nine-thirty  in 
the  evening,  and  there  would  be  no  special  point  in 
staying  in  them  anyway.  Public  meetings  are  pro- 
hibited. "  Stagger"  hours  have  been  instituted — where- 
by one  department  goes  to  its  work  a  half  hour  earlier 
than  another,  thus  relieving  the  congestion  of  the 
street  cars.— Dial,  N.  Y.,  Nov.  2,  1918. 


STAGNUCK 

The  publishers  of  the  Modern  Library  who  have  given 
five  different  definitions  of  a  "stagnuck,"  one  of  which 
is  a  person  who  thinks  Balzac  is  the  name  of  a  mining 
stock,  have  asked  the  public  for  their  definitions. 
They  report  that  they  have  received  about  six  hundred 
suggestions,  the  best  of  which,  in  their  opinion,  is  that  a 
"stagnuck"  is  a  person  who  thinks  that  George  Eliot 
was  the  father  of  ex -president  Eliot  of  Harvard.  A  list 
of  the  hundred  best  suggestions  will  be  printed  in  book- 
let form  and  distributed  in  the  near  future. — Bookman, 
Dec,  1918. 

STAR  SHELL 

The  American  Navy  has  developed  a  shell  which,  when 
fired  in  the  vicinity  of  any  enemy  fleet,  will  light  it  up, 
make  it  visible,  and  thus  render  it  an  easy  target. 
This  most  recent  naval  development  is  in  response  to 
the  demand  for  some  means  of  searching  out  the  enemy 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  181 

at  night.  For  many  years  the  need  of  lighting  the 
enemy  for  night  battle  has  been  supplied  by  high-power 
search-lights,  but  the  ever-increasing  range  of  naval 
artillery  outstripped  the  development  of  the  search- 
light and  some  more  effective  method  was  necessary. 
.  .  .  The  illuminating  portion  of  the  shell  consists 
of  a  single  light,  or  star,  attached  to  a  parachute. — 
Annual  Report  of  Secretary  of  the  Navy  (1918). 

STATIC 

Science  has  apparently  taken  a  giant  stride  if  the  inven- 
tion of  Roy  A.  Weagant  accomplishes  all  that  is  claimed 
for  it.  Mr.  Weagant  asserts  that  by  his  research  and 
discoveries  he  has  taken  all  the  "static"  out  of  wireless 
telegraphy.  What  the  oldtime  buzzing  was  in  the 
early  stages  of  the  telephone  the  "static"  is  to  the 
wireless,  interfering  with  perfect  communication  at  all 
times,  and  frequently  preventing  the  sending  of  mes- 
sages altogether.  Because  of  the  presence  in  the  air 
of  an  excess  of  uncontrolled  electricity,  the  transmission 
of  wireless  messages  has  at  times  been  impossible  for 
considerable  periods. — New  Era  Magazine,  Jan.,  1919. 


See  ship  one's  stripe. 


STINK  ALL 


STRAFE 


That   conglomerate   of   many   languages,  English,    as 
Logan  P.  Smith  successfully  shows  it  to  be  in  his  essay 


182  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

on  the  subject  in  a  recent  publication  of  the  Home 
University  Library  ("The  English  Language,"  Henry 
Holt  &  Co.)  has  captured  at  least  one  word  from  the 
enemy  in  the  present  war — "strafe."  Writers  from 
the  front  are  using  this  German  equivalent  of  "punish" 
in  a  way  and  with  a  freedom  that  suggests  its  incor- 
poration into  the  common  speech  with  a  secondary 
meaning  that  is  not  without  its  connotation  of  humour. 
—New  York  Times,  Dec.  17,  1916. 

The  captain  decides  to  stay  up.  "Fritz  might  try  a 
little  strafe  before  daylight,"  he  says.  But  no  strafe 
comes.  The  morning  dawns  red  and  serene  and  the 
captain  prepares  to  sleep  by  removing  his  gas  mask 
from  his  shoulders,  his  boots,  and  his  coat. — Stories  of 
Americans  in  the  World  War  (1918),  p.  119. 

The  German  ports  of  the  North  Sea  and  the  Belgian 
coast  can  know  only  that  so  many  of  their  submarines 
departed  with  high  hopes  of  strafing  merchant  vessels 
and  never  came  back. — Ralph  D.  Paine,  The  Fighting 
Fleets  (1918),  p.  112. 

STRAINAGRAPH 

A  new  device  to  record  the  "give"  of  a  ship,  very  similar 
to  the  seismograph  that  makes  an  accurate  record  of  an 
earthquake  shock,  has  been  developed  by  F.  R.  Mc- 
Millan, research  engineer  of  the  Concrete  Ship  Section, 
and  H.  S.  Loeffler,  assistant  research  engineer  of  the 
section.  When  equipped  with  this  device  every  strain 
that  a  ship  experiences  in  a  storm,  or,  for  that  matter, 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  183 

in  any  weather,  is  recorded  by  little  zigzag  waves  on  a 
strip  of  paper  which  passes  under  a  recording  needle 
in  the  instrument.  The  apparatus  was  tried  out  on  the 
concrete  steamer  Faith  on  her  first  voyage.  The  straina- 
graph  is  built  somewhat  on  the  principle  of  the  seis- 
mograph.— Nautical  Gazette,  October  18,  1918. 

STRIKER* 

When  we  reached  the  captain's  dugout  we  found  him 
in  the  doorway,  polishing  his  shoes.  He  was  a  big  man 
from  the  Northwest,  of  Scandinavian  blood,  and  pres- 
ently he  spoke  almost  as  if  he  were  carrying  on  his 
lieutenant's  democratic  exposition: 
"I'm  supposed  to  have  a  striker  for  this,  of  course;  but, 
upon  my  word,  there's  something  in  me  that  won't  let 
me  order  a  soldier,  over  here  to  fight,  to  polish  my  shoes 
unless  I  can't  possibly  find  time  to  do  it  myself." — 
Maude  Radford  Warren,  Saturday  Evening  Post. 
Oct.  12,  1918. 

SUICIDE  FLEET 

For  a  time  the  work  of  the  American  ships  sent  to 
assist  the  French  off  the  shores  of  Brittany  seemed  to 
be  rather  obscured  and  overlooked.  .  .  .  They 
called  it  "The  Suicide  Fleet"  when  it  sailed  from  home 
in  the  summer,  a  merry  jest  to  indicate  the  odds  laid 
against  the  vessels  in  nautical  circles. — Ralph  D. 
Paine,  The  Fighting  Fleets  (1918),  p.  184. 

?See  dog  robber. 


184  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 


SUPER- 

Only  recently  we  have  witnessed  such  a  prevalence  of 
the  prefix  super,  which  seems  to  have  caught  the  fancy 
of  the  moment.  For  some  time  we  have  had  not  only 
super-men  but  also  super-heated  steam  and  have  seen 
results  super-induced.  Now  the  New  York  Times, 
in  a  report  of  a  cabinet  meeting  (Feb.  4,  1917),  says: 
"The  view  was  general  that  a  super-crisis  had  been 
reached."  Punch  advertises  a  super-desk.  We  see 
on  the  screen  announcements  of  super-de-\\ixe  films, 
super-serials,  and  swper-pictures.  An  advertisement 
(March,  1917)  reads:  "Fashion's  mandates  are  always 
followed — often  anticipated,  occasionally  first  conceived 
in  this  spacious  yet  dainty  super-shop."  Super- 
dreadnaughts  and  swper-submarines — the  latter  a 
really  curious  combination  if  thought  of  from  the  ety- 
mological point  of  view — are  frequently  mentioned, 
.  .  .  The  same  thing  has  been  noted  in  French, 
by  G.  Gaillard  who  speaks  of  "la  predominance, 
.  .  .  d'un  nombre  considerable  [de  mots]  dans  la 
composition  desquels  entrent  des  prefixes  indiquant 
l'exces,  le  rencherissement  .  .  .  sur-animal,  sur- 
complety  sur-chrStien,  sur-estimation,  surhomme,  sur- 
monde,  surnational,  sur-pouse,  super-allemand,  super- 
normal, supra-europSen,  supra-national,  supra-personnel, 
Revuedephil.fr  XXV,  pp.  9  and  102  (1911).— Habyey 
J.  Swaxx,  French  Terminologies  in  the  Making  (1918), 
pp.  46-47. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  185 

SWANK 

I  was  the  envy  of  the  whole  section,  swanking  around 
telling  of  the  good  time  I  was  going  to  have. — Arthur 
Guy  Empey,  Over  the  Top  (1917). 

To  admit  enthusiasms  is  "bad  form"  if  he  [the  English- 
man] is  a  "gentleman";  and  "swank,"  or  mere  waste 
of  good  heat,  if  he  is  not  a  "gentleman." — John 
Galsworthy,  A  Sheaf  (1916). 

SWOT 

We  could  not  forego  this  much-prized  opportunity  for 
exercise  and  recreation,  but  once  it  was  over  we  settled 
down  in  grim  earnest  to  "swot"  at  the  subjects  re- 
ferred to. — From  Snotty  to  Sub,  by  "Heandi,"  London 
(1918),  p.  90. 

SYSTEM  D 

With  the  American  Army  in  the  Field,  March  16. — 
"System  D"  is  coming  into  play  in  the  United  States 
Army. 

"System  D"  is  a  bit  of  French  slang.  It  means  to 
unmix,  to  disentangle,  to  go  straight  through,  to  realize 
that  a  straight  line  is  really  the  shortest  distance  be- 
tween two  points.  It  comes  from  the  initial  letter  of 
the  word  "debrouiller,"  which  means  all  these  things. 
When  red  tape  gets  everlastingly  in  the  way  of  a 
French  officer  he — if  he  is  the  right  sort  of  an  officer — 


18G  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

invokes  System  D.  He  goes  and  does,  or  sees  to  it 
that  other  people  go  and  do,  what  should  be  gone  and 
done.  Afterward  he  gets  permission.  Sometimes  even 
the  permission  is  relegated  to  System  D. — Herbert 
Corey,  Baltimore  Star,  April  20,  1918. 


TACHOMETER 

Many  new  instruments  have  been  devised  for  aircraft. 
These  include  .  .  .  tachometers,  which  indicate 
the  engine  speed. — Problems  of  Aeroplane  Improve- 
ment, by  Naval  Consulting  Board  of  the  U.  S.,  Aug. 
1,  1918. 

TAKE  OFF 

The  start  from  Rockaway  of  the  three  airplanes,  NC-1, 
NC-3,  and  NC-4,  was  made  under  an  overcast  sky  at 
10.0-2,  a.  if.,  May  8,  1919.  The  NC-3,  the  division 
"flagplane,"  took  off  first. — Lieutenant  Commander 
A.  C.  Read,  Baltimore  Sun,  June  8,  1919. 


TANK* 

Just  how  the  armoured  cars,  used  for  the  first  time  by  the 
British  against  the  Huns,  were  given  the  name  "tanks" 
was  told  to-day  for  the  first  time  by  Horace  Gaul,  a 
veteran  of  the  war,  who  is  returning  to  the  front,  but 
this  time  as  a  Knights  of  Columbus  secretary. 

•See  No  Man'i  Land. 

187 


188  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

"The  front  lines  used  to  get  the  supply  of  water  from 
small  tanks  conveyed  from  the  purifying  plants  to  the 
trenches  by  motor  cars,"  said  Mr.  Gaul.  "In  a  few 
months  we  began  to  hear  the  sound  of  rivets  being 
driven.  This  went  on  day  and  night  for  months,  and 
when  we  asked  what  they  were  making  they  told  us 
'tanks.'  For  a  year  this  went  on  and  we  began  to 
think  they  must  have  enough  tanks  to  carry  all  the 
water  in  the  world.  Not  an  inkling  of  the  real  truth 
was  made  known  to  us,  although  we  were  within  sound 
of  the  riveters  at  work  all  the  time. 
"One  day  in  the  direction  from  which  these  sounds  had 
come  for  so  many  months  there  came  a  huge,  lumber- 
ing, steel  fortress  on  wheels.  It  went  right  across  No 
Man's  Land  and  cleaned  up  a  party  of  Huns.  Right 
then  and  there  they  were  christened  'tanks'  by  the 
men,  and  that  name  has  stuck." — New  York  Globe,  Oct. 
24,  1918. 

Among  the  new  fighting  weapons  developed  in  the 
present  war  the  tank,  the  basic  idea  of  which  was  sug- 
gested by  the  American  farm  caterpillar  tractor,  holds 
high  place  as  an  engine  of  military  warfare.  .  .  .  Men 
who  selected  the  service  were  attracted-  by  the  recog- 
nized importance  of  tanks  on  the  battlefield,  and  the 
appeal  of  its  motto,  "Treat  'em  Rough." — Annual 
Report  of  the  Secretary  of  War  (1918). 

TAUBE 

The  accuracy  of  aim  acquired  by  Private  Book  Hill, 
while  hunting  squirrels  in  the  woods  around  Gadsden, 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  189 

Ala.,  was  satisfactorily  tested  when  thirty-eight  Taubes 
(dove-shaped  German  airplanes)  in  squadron  formation 
began  to  sweep  the  American  trenches  in  the  Argonne. 
The  Alabama  squirrel  sniper  was  called  upon  by  Lieu- 
tenant Stephen  Townsend  to  prove  his  vaunted  marks- 
manship. He  did. — Stories  of  Americans  in  the  World 
War  (1918),  p.  62. 

TAVARISH 

I  am  going  to  try  to  teach  my  readers  six  Russian  words. 
The  first  is  tavarish,  it  means  comrade.  There  used 
to  be  a  law  against  using  it.  The  French,  in  their  Revo- 
lution, meant  about  the  same  thing  when  they  said 
citoyen.  It  is  a  word  you  hear  a  thousand  times  a  day 
everywhere. — William  G.  Shepherd,  Everybody's, 
Nov.,  1918. 

TAXI-ING 

The  plane  bumped  across  the  rough  ground,  acting  very 
much  like  an  automobile,  nosing  this  way  and  that  as 
Sidmore  sought  and  finally  found  the  direction  of  the 
wind.  This  maneuvering  along  the  ground  was  known, 
in  the  slang  of  the  camp,  as  "taxi-ing,"  being  designed 
as  a  final  test  of  the  motor  and  other  parts  before  leaving 
the  earth. — D.  H.  Haines,  American  Boy,  Feb.,  1919. 

TEACHERAGE 

Texas  has  337  teachers'  cottages  at  the  present  time, 
according  to  the  report  of  State  Superintendent  W.  F. 


190  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

Doughty.  Mr.  Doughty  reports  that  he  is  receiving 
most  hearty  cooperation  from  the  county  superinten- 
dents of  the  State  in  introducing  "teacherages"  as 
part  of  the  school  plan. — School  Life,  Washington,  D.  C, 
Aug.,  1918., 

TEUFEL  HUNDE 

See  Devil  Dogs. 

THE  TRADE 

No  one  knows  how  the  title  of  "The  Trade"  came  to 
be  applied  to  the  submarine  service.  Some  say  that 
the  cruisers  invented  it  because  they  pretend  that  sub- 
marine officers  look  like  unwashed  chauffeurs.  Others 
think  it  sprang  forth  by  itself,  which  means  that  it  was 
coined  by  the  lower  deck,  where  they  always  have  the 
proper  names  for  things.  Whatever  the  truth,  the 
submarine  service  is  now  "The  Trade,"  and  if  you  ask 
them  why  they  will  answer,  "What  else  could  you  call 
it?  The  Trade's  'the  trade,'  of  course." — Rudyard 
Kipling,  New  York  Times,  Current  History,  August, 
1916. 

THOMASINA  ATKINS 

Very  entertaining  are  these  letters  by  "Thomasina 
Atkins,"  private  in  the  W.  A.  A.  C.  on  active  service. 
"Thomasina"  joined  up  in  October,  1917,  and  was  sent 
to  France  in  December  and  given  work  as  a  clerk. 
"Thomasina"  en  masse  presents  quite  as  much  variety 
as  "Tommy" — "North-country  mill  girls,  munition 
workers,  farm  hands,  clerks;  every  possible  grade  of 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  191 

society,  all  out  to  be  heard  in  every  dialect  in  the  King- 
dom. And  Oh !  such  odd  faces — just  like  a  Phil  May 
panorama."  "Thomasina  Atkins,"  we  are  proud  to 
know,  carries  on  the  tradition  of  her  comrade  "  Tommy." 
— Spectator,  London,  Sept.  14,  1918. 

TIN  HAT 

Of  the  manifold  names  applied  to  the  steel  helmet, 
hardly  one  indicates  the  material  of  which  it  is  made. 
All  the  familiar  Paris  words  for  hat  do  duty,  but  not 
one  is  really  as  adequate  to  the  innovation  as  the  Eng- 
lish "tin  hat." — London  Times,  review  of  Dauzat's 
L' Argot  de  la  Guerre  (1918). 

T.  N.  T. 

In  discussing  explosives  during  one  of  the  booth  lectures 
during  the  afternoon  one  of  the  visiting  chemists  de- 
scribed the  properties  and  effectiveness  of  T.  N.  T.,  a 
powerful  military  explosive  which  was  generally  intro- 
duced to  the  world  with  horrifying  significance  with  the 
fall  of  Liege  in  1914.  T.  N.  T.  is  an  abbreviation  for 
trinitrotoluol.  Powerful  as  is  this  explosive,  it  is 
neither  difficult  nor  dangerous  to  make,  and  can  be 
transported  with  greater  safety  than  almost  any  other 
explosive.  When  in  loose  form  it  is  a  white  solid,  half 
again  as  heavy  as  water,  and  melts  well  below  the  boil- 
ing point  of  water.  It  can  then  be  filled  into  shells 
without  danger  from  fumes  or  corrosion  of  the  metal. — 
New  York  Times,  Nov.  26,  1917. 


192  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 


TNX 

After  exhaustive  experiments  were  made  in  the  short 
space  of  two  weeks,  the  bureau  decided  to  replace,  as 
far  as  possible,  the  explosive  TNT  with  TNX.  These 
two  high  explosives  are  "first  cousins";  the  latter  con- 
taining xylol  instead  of  toluol. 

Experimentation  showed  that  TNX  possessed  practi- 
cally the  same  qualities  as  TNT. — Annual  Report  of 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  for  1918. 


TOCK  EMMA* 

After  supper  I  was  sitting  in  the  dugout  writing  home 
by  the  light  of  a  flickering  candle  when  I  was  informed 
that  there  was  a  corporal  outside  who  wanted  to  see  me. 
He  turned  out  to  be  Bombardier  "Chuck"  Gibson  who 
was  with  the  sixty-pound  "Tock  Emma"  (Trench  Mor- 
tar) Battery  located  on  our  frontage.  .  .  .  "Chuck" 
promised  to  bring  Howard  Brown,  who  happened  also 
to  be  in  the  front  line  with  the  "Tock  Emmas,"  over 
to  see  me  the  next  day.  He  told  me  of  a  "strafe"  they 
were  putting  on  next  morning  about  8 :30  and  I  prom- 
ised to  go  over  and  observe  for  them. — Lieutenant 
J.  Harvey  Douglas,  Captured  (1918),  p.  25. 


*See  Emma  Gee. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  193 

TOMMY-COOKER 

When  4  o'clock  came  around  every  manjack  of  us  would 
take  out  his  Tommy -cooker  and  begin  making  his  tea. 
What  is  a  Tommy-cooker?  That  is  another  trick  of 
the  war  trade  that  Tommy  taught  us.  It's  a  bit  of  a 
burlap  bag,  rolled  up  very  tight  and  soaked  in  fat  or 
candle  grease.  We  used  to  save  all  scraps  of  fat  for  our 
Tommy-cookers.  These  burn  like  candles,  without 
smoke,  and  you  can  brew  a  tin  cup  of  tea  over  them 
beautifully.  Out  in  the  first-line  trenches,  within  ear- 
shot of  the  boches,  the  Tommies  would  light  their  little 
cookers  and  earnestly  go  to  the  task  of  upholding  British 
tradition,  which  before  very  long  became  American 
tradition. — Captain  Edward  M.  Kent,  New  York 
Times,  Feb.  23,  1919. 


TOMMYWAACS 

A  report  submitted  by  him  [Raymond  B.  Fosdick] 
to  the  Secretary  of  War  suggests  an  organization  mod- 
elled on  the  lines  of  the  Woman's^ Auxiliary  Army  Corps 
of  Great  Britain,  the  so-called  "Waacs"  or  "Tommy- 
waacs." — New  York  Times,  Nov.  25, 1918. 


TOO  PROUD  TO  FIGHT 

The  example  of  America  must  be  the  example  not 
merely  of  peace  because  it  will  not  fight,  but  of  peace 
because  peace  is  the  healing  and  elevating  influence  of 


194  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

the  world  and  strife  is  not.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  a 
man  being  too  proud  to  fight.  There  is  such  a  thing 
as  a  nation  being  so  right  that  it  does  not  need  to  con- 
vince others  by  force  that  it  is  right. — President  Wil- 
son, New  York,  April  20,  1915. 

Throughout  1916  and  the  campaign  for  reelection,  in  the 
face  of  foreign  criticism  and  partisan  impeachment, 
with  the  public  prints  full  of  distortions  of  detached 
statements,  such  as  "too  proud  to  fight,"  he  [President 
Wilson]  carried  forward  the  preachment  of  America's 
duty  to  stand  for  principles  of  permanent  peace. — 
Frederick  A.  Cleveland,  in  Cleveland  and  Schafer's 
Democracy  in  Reconstruction  (1919). 

TORPEDOPLANE 

In  May,  1917,  those  who  believed  in  the  potentiality 
of  the  torpedoplane  and  hoped  that  the  Allies  would 
put  this  device  into  effect  against  the  German  Navy 
before  Germany  could  build  torpedoplanes  were  made 
heartsick  by  the  report  that  the  British  steamship 
Gena  had  been  torpedoed  by  a  German  torpedoplane. — 
Naval  Institute,  Annapolis,  Md.,  May,  1919. 

On  one  occasion  when  the  experiment  of  discharging  a 
torpedo  from  an  aeroplane  was  made,  the  lightening  of 
the  aeroplane  had  such  a  serious  effect  on  the  latter 
that  the  wings  collapsed  and  the  pilot  was  hurled  to 
sudden  death. — Daily  Mail,  London,  Dec.  27, 1918. 

This  mystery  or  "Cuckoo"  aeroplane — so  called  be- 
cause of  its  weakness  for  laying  eggs  in  other  people's 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  195 

nests — is  one  further  testimony  to  British  engineering 
ability  and  resourcefulness  of  our  navy. — Daily  Mail, 
London,  Dec.  27,  1918. 


TORPILLAGE 

"What  is  a  torpillage?'"  Jones  asked. 
"A  tor  pillage"  said  Colonel  Custis,  "is  a  torpedoing. 
The  French  cure  for  shell  shock  is  an  electric  current 
so  terrible  that  the  patients  themselves  invented  the 
name  tor-pillage  for  it.  A  good  name,  too.  I've  seen 
the  torpillage  administered.  It's  the  strongest  and  most 
painful  current  a  man  can  bear  without  succumbing. 
A  bedridden  paralytic  on  his  first  torpillage  will  give  a 
yell  like  a  wild  Indian,  spring  from  bed,  strike  his 
physician  a  terrific  blow  on  the  nose,  and  then  dash 
round  and  round  the  room  cursing  and  swearing,  beside 
himself  with  indignation  and  rage.  After  that,  of 
course,  he's  cured.  He  can't  after  that  sink  back  into 
bed  again — a  paralytic — can  he?" — W.  B.  Trites, 
Saturday  Evening  Post,  March  29, 1919. 

TOTO 

Pou  was  found  to  be  too  particular  and  probably  too 
serious  a  word  for  the  vermin  with  which  the  soldier  had 
to  contend.  Toto  is  the  universal  term,  which,  as  Mr. 
Dauzat  neatly  shows,  was  probably  taken  by  the  troops 
in  the  Champagne  direct  from  the  peasants  there. — 
London  Times,  review  of  Dauzat's  U  Argot  de  la  Guerre 
(1918). 


196  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

'*'    TREAT  'EM  ROUGH 

The  men  in  the  tank  service  have  chosen  "Treat  'Em 
Rough"  as  their  slogan,  and  a  huge  black  cat  as  the 
emblem  and  mascot.  Any  cat  that  looks  black  enough 
and  fierce  enough  is  apt  to  be  kidnapped  and  adopted 
by  some  tank  battalion. — Stories  of  Americans  in  the 
World  War  (1918),  p.  162. 


TRENCH-DREAMS 

One  of  the  most  common,  and  at  the  same  time  most 
pitiful,  of  the  many  mental  phenomena  of  the  war  is  the 
inability  to  sleep  soundly,  and  the  recurrence  of  so- 
called  "trench-dreams."  It  is  not  uncommon  to  see 
soldiers  start  from  their  beds  in  the  middle  of  the  night, 
crying  out  and  weeping,  their  bodies  bathed  in  perspira- 
tion, as  they  dream  of  being  chased  by  Germans  with 
bayonets,  or  of  being  buried  under  debris  by  a  mine- 
explosion,  or  of  losing  the  trench  in  a  fog  and  being 
unable  to  get  back. 

The  fear  that  is  found  is  not  the  kind  the  layman  might 
expect.  The  soldier  does  not,  as  a  rule,  fear  injury  to 
himself.  He  is  afraid  of  doing  something  wrong,  of  an 
emergency  in  which  he  may  fail  and  lose  the  confidence 
of  his  comrades.  His  fear  is  the  fear  of  being  a  coward. 
— Hereward  Carrington,  quoted  in  Literary  Digest, 
Nov.  23,  1918. 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  197 

TRENCH  FEET 

A  peculiar  affliction,  first  noticed  during  this  war,  is 
what  is  known  as  "trench  feet."  Where  men  are 
required  to  remain  for  long  periods  standing  in  cold 
water  and  unable  to  move  about  to  any  great  extent, 
the  circulation  of  blood  in  the  lower  limbs  becomes 
sluggish  and,  eventually,  stops.  The  result  appears 
to  be  exactly  the  same  as  that  caused  by  severe  frost- 
bite.— Captain  Herbert  W.  McBride,  The  Emma 
Gees  (1918). 

TRILLION 

The  consideration  of  reparations  has  introduced  the 
word  "trillion"  in  recognizing  money,  probably  for  the 
first  time  in  any  single  financial  operation,  for,  although 
millions  and  billions  often  have  been  used  in  war  finance, 
no  sum  has  yet  been  reached  touching  a  trillion. 
In  estimating  the  war  losses  of  all  the  powers  the  first 
figures  of  one  of  the  great  powers  aggregated  a  trillion 
francs  and  those  of  another  power  were  slightly  above 
a  half  trillion  francs,  namely,  six  hundred  billion  francs. 
— Associated  Press,  Paris,  March  11,  1919. 

TROMMELFEUER 

See  drum-fire. 


u 


UNITED  STATES  ARMY 

On  August  7,  1918,  the  distinguishing  appellations 
"Regular  Army,"  "Reserve  Corps,"  "National 
Guard,"  and  "National  Army"  were  ordered  discon- 
tinued; and  the  military  forces  of  the  Nation  were 
consolidated  into  the  "United  States  Army." — Annual 
Report  of  the  Secretary  of  War  (1918). 


USONA 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  name  Usona  (of  very  easy  con- 
struction, to  be  sure)  was  first  proposed  by  a  Canadian, 
James  P.  Murray  of  Toronto,  in  1885.  It  was  thor- 
oughly discussed,  both  pro  and  con,  in  the  Nation 
(among  other  places)  in  March,  1916.  And  at  the 
time  of  The  Hague  Conference,  when  the  "Americans" 
first  claimed  their  name — being  unwilling,  it  is  said, 
to  come  in  for  seats  in  the  rear  of  the  hall  with  the 
U's  and  the  V's — Sir  Edward  Grey  (as  he  was  then) 
urged  upon  us,  in  a  speech  delivered  in  London,  the 
name  Usona,  but,  of  course,  without  undue  insistence. — 
Christine  Ladd  Franklin,  New  York  Times,  July 
20,  1918. 

198 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  199 

USONIAN 
I  note  that  a  correspondent  objects  to  the  use  of  the  term 
"American"  to  designate  a  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
and  suggests  the  use  of  the  barbarous  word  "Usonian" 
instead. — W.  J.  Burner,  Nation,  Feb.  10,  1916. 
Just  as  the  citizen  of  the  "United  States  of  Mexico"  is 
universally  and  appropriately  known  as  a  Mexican, 
just  as  the  citizen  of  the  "United  States  of  Brazil" 
is  known  as  a  Brazilian,  and  the  citizen  of  the  "Do- 
minion of  Canada"  as  a  Canadian,  so  the  citizen  of  the 
"United  States  of  America"  is  appropriately — may 
we  not  even  say  necessarily  and  inevitably — known 
as  an  American.  And  this  without  any  more  justi- 
fiable sensitiveness  or  resentment  on  the  part  of  the 
Mexican,  the  Brazilian,  or  the  Canadian  toward  the 
"American"  than  on  the  part  of  the  Ithacan  or  the 
Utican  toward  the  "New  Yorker."  Are  not  the  former 
one  and  all  Americans,  and  are  not  the  latter  one  and 
all  New  Yorkers? 

As  for  the  substitute  "Usonian,'*  "the  name  which 
has  been  devised  [from  the  initials  U.  S.]  for  this  pur- 
pose by  the  makers  of  the  scientific  auxiliary  inter- 
national languages,"  it  may  be  suggested  that  the 
word  might  better  be  spelt  "USonian"  (in  imitation 
of  the  "scientifically"  formed,  and  at  one  time  some- 
what current  term,  "APAism,"  i.  e.,  the  propaganda 
of  the  American  Protective  Association),  were  it  not 
that  the  irreverent  might  be  tempted  to  change  its 
form  to  "USonlian." — Henry  Alfred  Todd,  Nation, 
Feb.  10,  1916. 


V 


VERY  LIGHT 

They  also  have  a  parachute  star  shell  which,  after 
reaching  a  height  of  about  sixty  feet,  explodes.  A 
parachute  unfolds  and  slowly  floats  to  the  ground, 
lighting  up  a  large  circle  in  No  Man's  Land.  The 
official  name  of  the  star  shell  is  a  Very-light.  Very- 
lights  are  used  to  prevent  night  surprise  attacks  on 
the  trenches. — Arthur  Guy  Empey,  Over  the  Top 
(1917). 

"Ivanowski,  send  two  men  aloft  with  orders  to  keep  a 
sharp  eye  ahead  for  lights — blue  Very  lights  on  the  bow, 
or  if  anything  to  the  port.  Straight  away — tumble 
'em  up.  .  .  .  What's  wrong  with  you?" — Wil- 
liam Daniel  Steele,  Harper's,  April,  1919. 

VISITORIUM 

See  newsfilm. 

VITAMIN,  VITAMINE 

The  idea  that  there  is  anything  particularly  nutritious 
about  beer  is  negatived  by  an  editorial  writer  in  The 
Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association  (Chicago, 

200 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  201 

November  30) .  Tests  for  the  vitamins,  now  generally 
recognized  as  necessary  elements  of  foods,  have  resulted 
in  showing  that  they  are  entirely  absent. — Literary 
Digest,  Jan.  4,  1919. 

Now  it  happens  that  the  latest  discovery  of  our  food 
chemists  is  that  the  very  important  ingredients  of  a 
nutritious  diet  known  as  vitamines  are  lost  if  dried  peas 
and  beans  are  cooked  in  the  ordinary  way,  but  saved 
if  these  legumes  are  allowed  to  sprout. — Nation,  Novem- 
ber 2,  1918. 

VOILA  LES  AMfiRICAINS! 

Voila  les  Americains!"  is  the  title  of  a  poster  which  is 
displayed  on  every  Paris  hoarding.  It  shows  the 
German  Crown  Prince  holding  a  crowbar  with  which 
he  is  trying  to  force  open  the  door  of  Paris.  He  has 
turned  from  his  task  with  an  expression  of  acute  anxiety 
for  on  the  wall  beside  him  is  the  gigantic  shadow  of  an 
American  soldier.  When  you  remember  the  confidence 
with  which  the  Kaiser's  heir  proclaimed  his  intentions 
on  Paris,  there  is  something  rather  splendid  about 
such  a  simple  and  direct  method  of  jeering. — Roy 
S.  Durstlne,  Scrib?ier's  Monthly,  Nov.,  1918,  p.  560. 

VRILLE* 

I  remember  when  I  thought  it  was  time  to  try  a  vrille 
or  tail-spin.  I  knew  you  put  the  stick  over  and  crossed 
the  controls,  but  I'd  never  seen  anybody  do  it.  I 
went  up  about  12,000  feet,  got  off  some  distance  from 

*See  ckaruUUe. 


202  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

the  field,  and  flew  around  there  for  every  bit  of  thirty 
minutes  trying  to  get  up  my  nerve  to  try  the  trick, 
but  too  scared  to  begin. — Captain  Edward  Victor 
Rickenbacker,  United  States  Air  Service,  March, 
1919. 


w 

1/  WAACS 

Here  we  saw  hundreds  of  "Waacs"  and  "Penguins" 
working.  England  is  the  only  nation  that  has  allowed 
women  in  her  army,  unless  it  be  Russia  and  her  Bat- 
talion of  Death.  The  Waacs  (Woman's  Auxiliary 
Army  Corps)  consists  of  many  thousands  of  British 
women  who  have  enlisted  in  the  army,  wear  a  regular 
khaki  uniform,  and  live  under  strict  military  dis- 
cipline. At  least  twenty  thousand  of  them  serve  close 
behind  the  front  lines  in  France  as  waitresses,  house- 
keepers, clerks,  chauffeurs,  stenographers,  etc.,  while 
many  more  are  stationed  in  posts  all  over  England. 
The  Waacs  are  auxiliary  to  the  army. — Hamilton 
Holt,  Independent,  Dec.  14,  1918. 

WANGLE 

Now,  contrary  to  what  might  have  been  expected,  the 
war  has  not  depreciated  the  lingual  currency.  It  has 
indeed  circulated  camouflage  and  strafe  but  provided 
they  are  not  naturalized  and  remain  merely  denizens, 
they  may  be  serviceable,  while  "carry  on"  actually 
supplies  a  word  that  was  badly  missed.  Nor  do  we 
object  to  wangle. — Spectator,  London,  Sept.  21,  1918. 

203 


204  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

And  wet — always,  always  wet,  unless  the  weather  is 
clear  and  the  sea  is  calm — but  good  sea  boats.  They 
[the  submarine  chasers]  wangle  through  somehow. 
They  weather  it  out. — Samuel  G.  Blythe,  Saturday 
Evening  Post,  Oct.  19,  1918. 

A  propeller  had  been  caught  in  the  mooring  cable  and 
wangled  it  [the  mine]  about  until  the  mooring  parted. — 
Ralph  D.  Paine,  The  Fighting  Fleets. 

"An'  with  all  that  influence  at  the  back  of  yer,  yer 
couldn't  wangle  a  cushier  job  than  this." — Punch, 
London,  Oct.  16,  1918. 

WASHOUT 

Small  wonder,  then,  that  the  day  he  [Vernon  Castle] 
died  and  the  first  Sunday  were  complete  "washouts" 
at  Camp  Benbrook.  In  aviation  parlance  a  "washout" 
is  a  day  on  which  planes  are  not  sent  up.  That  there 
were  two  washouts  occasioned  by  Vernon's  death 
was  a  beautiful  tribute  to  him  for  where  so  many  flyers 
must  be  trained,  a  washout  is  a  rarity. — Irene  Castle, 
Everybody's*  March,  1919. 

WATCHFUL  WAITING 

We  shall  not,  I  believe,  be  obliged  to  alter  our  policy 
of  watchful  waiting.  And  then,  when  the  end  comes, 
we  shall  hope  to  see  constitutional  order  restored  in 
distressed  Mexico  by  the  concert  and  energy  of  such 
of  her  leaders  as  prefer  the  liberty  of  their  people  to 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  205 

their  own  ambitions. — President  Wilson,  First  An- 
nual Message,  Dec.  2,  1913. 

WATER  BOMB 
See  depth  bomb. 

WEASEL  WORDS 

Colonel  Roosevelt  had  read  that  President  Wilson  had 
said  he  was  in  favour  of  universal  training  which  was  not 
compulsory.  In  his  address  delivered,  perhaps,  fifteen 
minutes  later*  the  Colonel  coined  the  expression 
"weasel  words,"  to  describe  the  President's  utterance. 
"What  made  you  think  of  that  expression?"  he  was 
asked  later. 

"It's  hard  to  explain  what  made  me  think  of  it,"  he 
replied.  "Thirty  years  ago  I  knew  an  old  guide  and 
he  told  me  about  the  habits  of  the  weasel.  If  you 
placed  a  weasel  alongside  an  egg,  he  told  me,  the  weasel 
would  bore  a  hole  in  it  and  suck  out  all  the  meat. 
That  was  exactly  what  President  Wilson  did.  He 
favoured  universal  training  for  military  service,  but  not 
compulsory  training.  He  used  words  in  favour  of  a 
good  thing  but  he  sucked  all  the  meat  out  of  them  by 
the  words  which  followed  his  declaration.  I  don't 
know  what  made  me  think  of  it  at  the  moment;  it 
just  popped  into  my  mind." — New  York  Times  Maga- 
zine, August  27,  1916. 

WHIPPET 

The  Whippet — so  named  I  suppose  from  the  speedy 
dog  which  chases  rabbits  to  earth — is  the  pacing  drome- 


206  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

dary  of  Tankdom.  She  is  light — only  a  few  tons 
I  should  guess — and  instead  of  accommodating  man 
Jonah-like  in  her  entrails,  carries  a  cab  like  a  camel's 
hump,  from  which  one  can  look,  sometimes  perpen- 
dicularly, behind.  The  Whippet  has  two  engines,  one 
for  each  of  her  paw  series,  and  that  accounts  for  her 
eccentric  motion.  As  she  runs  her  eight,  ten,  up  to  a 
conceivable  twenty  miles  an  hour,  she  squeals  rau- 
cously.— Henry  Seidel  Canby,  Yale  Review,  Oct., 
1918. 

The  smaller  tanks,  or  "whippets,"  as  the  British  call 
them,  are  practically  armoured  cavalry,  only  the  steed 
is  mechanical  and  the  driver  sits  inside  instead  of  atop. 
— New  York  Tribune,  August,  1918. 

WHIZ-BANG 

A  "whiz-bang"  is  a  shell  of  such  high  velocity  that  its 
whizz  and  its  bang  are  almost  simultaneous. — William 
Philip  Simms,  Baltimore  Star,  June  22, 1917. 

November  11,  the  day  the  armistice  was  signed,  you 
remember,  is  called  "Groundhog  day"  over  here,  be- 
cause on  that  day  everyone  came  out  of  his  hole.  And 
that's  the  truth,  too.  You  could  appreciate  the  joke 
if  you  knew  the  conditions  when  the  "whiz-bangs" 
were  flying. — Lieutenant  L.  G.  Hayes,  Literary  Di- 
gest, Feb.  22,  1919. 

THE  WILL  TO— 

One  of  the  minor  manifestations  of  the  prevailing  Teu- 
tonic spirit  which  led  to  this  War  is  to  be  found  in  the 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  207 

invention  of  a  comparatively  new  phrase  and  its  con- 
stant use  by  those  who  were  directly  responsible  for  the 
War  in  the  period  preceding  its  outbreak  and  through- 
out the  whole  of  its  duration. 

The  phrases— "the  Will  to  Deeds"  (der  Wille  zur  Tat), 
"the  Will  to  Might,"  "the  Will  to  Victory,"  "the  Will 
to  Unity,"  even  "the  Will  to  Defeat,"  or,  as  ascribed 
to  their  enemies,  "the  Will  to  Destruction,"  occurred 
in  nearly  every  pronouncement  or  speech  made  by  the 
Kaiser,  his  statesmen,  and  generals  since  1907.  The 
constant  reiteration  of  such  phrases  and  what  they 
imply,  and  their  continuous  repercussion  upon  the  ear 
of  the  public,  not  only  of  the  German  people,  but  of  their 
enemies  and  of  neutrals,  have  so  thoroughly  familiarized 
the  world  with  this  unusual  and  illogical  phrase  (which, 
moreover,  runs  counter  to  the  vernacular  character  of 
the  German  as  well  as  of  the  English  language),  that 
similar  phrases  have  found  their  way  into  our  own 
language  in  these  latter  days  or,  at  least,  into  that 
insidiously  dangerous  and  demoralizing  sphere  of  our 
language,  the  "Journalese." — Nineteenth  Century  and 
After,  Jan.  1919. 

WILSONITIS 

Paris,  Jan  7. — Paris  has  WTilsonitis  in  a  most  virulent 
form.  The  Spanish  "flu,"  which  recently  had  the 
town  in  its  clutches,  wasn't  half  so  widespread.  Presi- 
dent Wilson  just  now  is  the  hobby  of  every  Parisian 
who's  old  enough  to  know  what  it's  all  about. — C.  C. 
Lyon,  Baltimore  Evening  Sun,  Jan.  7,  1919. 


208  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

WIPERS 

At  various  points  we  came  upon  interesting  trenches, 
most  of  which  were  marked  with  the  name  of  the  point 
to  which  they  led.  One,  I  remember,  was  "Wipers 
Road";  not  that  it  ran  all  the  way  to  Ypres  but  led 
in  the  direction  of  that  place. — Captain  Herbert  W. 
McBride,  The  Emma  Gees  (1918). 

WIRELESS  TELEPHONY 
See  radio  speech. 

THE  WOOD  OF  THE  AMERICANS 

The  next  day,  June  27,  1918,  the  President  of  France 
unexpectedly  visited  the  American  battlefront.  He 
had  come  to  congratulate  the  Americans  on  their  splen- 
did work.  The  whole  Belleau  Wood  and  ridge  opera- 
tions were,  he  said,  peculiarly  American  in  plan  and 
execution  and  henceforth,  in  memory  of  the  fighting  done 
there  Belleau  Wood  should  be  known  as  the  Wood  of 
the  Americans. — Stories  of  Americans  in  the  World 
War  (1918),  p.  38. 

WOP 

About  thirty  per  cent,  of  my  platoon  were  Italians — 
wops  if  you  like.  Then  we  had  a  number  with  Polish 
names  and  a  few  German.  So  you  can  see  that  the  alien 
element  was  heavy.     .     .     .     You've  got  to  hand  it  to 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  209 

them.  They're  bear  cats!  If  anybody  had  told  me  a 
year  ago  that  these  aliens  would  fight  the  way  they  do 
I'd  have  laughed  at  him.  Why,  you  can  take  wops 
from  the  tenement  districts  and  make  them  fightin' 
fools! — George  Pattullo,  Saturday  Evening  Post, 
Nov.    2,    1918. 

WRENS 

The  "Wrens"  (Woman's  Royal  Naval  Service)  are  at- 
tached to  the  navy.  While  working  in  the  factories 
side  by  side  with  men  the  women  usually  discard  their 
military  uniforms  and  don  the  farmerette  khaki 
bloomer  costume. — Hamilton  Holt,  Independent,  Dec. 
14,  1918. 


The  "Y,"  as  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  is 
familiarly  known,  has  been  operating  in  ninety-five 
per  cent,  of  the  places  in  France  where  there  are  three 
hundred  or  more  American  troops,  and  in  the  near  future 
the  work  will  be  extended  to  all  the  smaller  groups  as 
well.  Hence  it  has  been  possible  to  incorporate  the 
Post  Exchanges  in  the  many  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  centres  already  established. — Outlook, 
March  27,  1918. 

When  General  Allenby's  forces  pushed  their  way  across 
the  Jordan  two  "Y"  Fords,  loaded  with  "smokes," 
were  the  first  cars  to  cross. — Chaeles  W.  Whitehaib, 
Baltimore  Evening  Sun,  Oct.  18,  1918. 

YEOETTE 

Thirty-three  enlisted  men  of  the  Navy  Medical  Corps 
stationed  at  St.  Elizabeth's  Hospital  were  entertained 
yesterday  afternoon  at  a  banquet  prepared  under  the 
direction  of  Miss  Mary  O'Connor,  "yeoette"  of  the 
station. — Evening  Star,  Washington,  D.  C,  Nov.  29, 
1918. 

210 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  211 

YEOMAN  (F) 

1 .  It  has  come  to  the  attention  of  the  chief  of  the  bureau 
of  navigation  that  the  terms  "yeowoman"  and  "yeo- 
manette"  have  been  applied  to  the  young  ladies  who 
are  serving  in  the  .naval  reserve  force. 

2.  The  official  designation  of  these  young  ladies  is 
"Yeoman  (F),"  and  it  is  hereby  directed  that  the  use 
of  these  unofficial  titles  be  discontinued. — Army  and 
Navy  Register,  Washington,  D.  C,  Feb.  15,  1919. 

YEOMANETTE 

See  yeoman  (F). 

YEOWOMAN 

See  yeoman  (F). 

Y  GUN 

About  May,  1918,  our  own  ships  began  to  come  over 
with  all  these  devices  installed.  They  were  also 
equipped  with  radio  telephones,  depth  charges,  and 
"Y"  guns.  A  "Y"  gun  is  a  casting  with  two  arms 
forming  a  Y.  Each  arm  holds  a  depth  bomb,  which 
can  be  shot  out  by  means  of  an  auxiliary  powder  charge 
to  a  distance  of  100  feet. — C.  F.  Scott,  New  York 
Times,  March  30,  1919. 

A  new  gun  known  as  the  "Y"  gun  has  been  designed 
and  built  especially  for  firing  depth  charges.  All  our 
destroyers  and  subchasers  were  equipped  with  this 
weapon. — Annual  Report  of  Secretary  of  the  Navy  (1918). 


212  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

YTPSEL 

Chicago,  Dec.  13. — Members  of  the  Young  People's 
Socialist  League  called  "Yipsels,"  believing  that  they 
they  were  facing  jail  for  spreading  propaganda  against 
the  nation's  war  program,  had  a  triplicate  officership 
arranged,  with  female  "reds"  in  the  background,  to 
continue  a  secret  fight  under  the  guise  of  "athletic, 
musical,  and  dramatic  clubs,"  according  to  evidence 
introduced  to-day  in  the  espionage  trial  of  Victor  L. 
Berger,  Congressman-elect  from  Milwaukee,  and  his 
four  co-defendants,  in  Federal  Judge  Landis's  court. — 
New  York  Times,  Dec.  14,  1918. 


ZEMGOR 

The  Zemstvos  are  more  or  less  analogous  to  our  own 
County  Councils.  Correspondingly,  Russia  possesses 
Town  Councils  which  also  have  a  Union  of  their  own. 
But  the  two  Unions  have  worked  together,  and  Russia, 
as  Professor  Simpson  records  in  his  article  in  the  Nine- 
teenth Century,  has  created  a  synthetic  word  "Zemgor," 
on  the  analogy  of  our  own  word  "Anzac,"  to  express 
the  combination  of  the  Zemstvos  (County  Councils) 
and  the  Gorod  (Town  Councils).  The  Zemgor  has 
made  good  the  deficiencies  of  the  centralized  bureauc- 
racy which  has  hitherto  ruled  Russia,  and  the  work  it 
has  done  is  extraordinary  in  its  magnitude. — London 
Spectator,  April  27,  1917. 

ZERO,*  ZERO  HOUR 

I  only  remained  long  enough  to  sight  it  [rifle]  in  and 
get  it  "zeroed"  and  was  back  again  in  front  that  same 
night.  "Zeroing"  a  rifle  is  the  process  of  testing  it  out 
on  a  range  at  known  distances  and  setting  the  sights 
to  suit  one's  individual  peculiarities  of  aiming.  Having 
once  established  the  "zero"  the  marksman  can  always 

*See  the  jump  off. 

213 


214  NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED 

figure  the  necessary  alterations  for  other  ranges  or 
changed  conditions  of  wind  and  light. — Captain  Her- 
bert W.  McBride,  The  Emma  Gees  (1918). 

We  went  in  on  the  night  of  the  twelfth  and  the  attack 
was  scheduled  for  the  night  of  the  thirteenth,  or  rather 
the  morning  of  the  fourteenth,  as  the  preliminary  bom- 
bardment was  to  commence  at  twelve-forty-five  and 
"zero"  was  one-thirty  A.  M. — Captain  Herbert  W. 
McBride,  The  Emma  Gees  (1918). 

Our  officers  set  their  watches  very  carefully  with  those 
of  the  artillery  officers  before  we  went  forward  to  the 
front  trenches.  We  reached  the  front  at  11  p.  M. 
and  not  until  our  arrival  there  were  we  informed  of  the 
"zero  hour" — the  time  when  the  attack  was  to  be  made. 
The  hour  of  12.10  had  been  selected.  The  waiting 
from  eleven  o'clock  until  that  time  was  simply  an  agony. 
Some  of  our  men  sat  stupid  and  inert.  Others  kept 
talking  constantly  about  the  most  inconsequential 
matters.  One  man  undertook  to  tell  a  funny  story. 
No  one  listened  to  it,  and  the  laugh  at  the  end  was 
emaciated  and  ghastly.  The  inaction  was  driving  us 
all  into  a  state  of  funk.  I  could  actually  feel  my  nerve 
oozing  out  at  my  finger-tips,  and,  if  we  had  had  to  wait 
fifteen  minutes  longer  I  shouldn't  have  been  able  to 
climb  out  of  the  trench. — Sergeant  Alexander  Mc- 
Clintock,  Best  o'Luck. 

ZING 

They  were  the  picked  athletes  of  the  whole  English 
Army  and  were  doing  their  calisthenics  with  a  precision 


NEW  WORDS  SELF-DEFINED  215 

and  spirit  I  have  never  seen  ^equalled  anywhere.  The 
"pep,"  "zing,"  and  "vim"  were  thrilling. — Hamilton 
Holt,  Independent,  Dec.  14,  1918. 

ZOOM* 

Then  I  came  down  the  valley  and  came  back  on  a  level 
with  them.  I  "gave  'er  all  the  gun"  and  "zoomed" 
the  chateau — that  is,  I  almost  went  up  the  front  of  the 
place.  It  was  too  close  for  comfort,  and  I  don't  know 
what  they  thought  of  me,  because  I  probably  gave 
them  a  fright. — From  an  American  in  France,  Inde- 
pendent, Nov.  16,  1918. 

♦See  chandelle. 


THE    END 


THE  COUNTRY  LITE  PRESS 
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